


Non-Zero Something for Everyone

by S_M_F (Autistic_Ace)



Category: WWW Trilogy (Books) - Robert J. Sawyer, Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Aiesha Emerson (WWW Trilogy), Caitlin Decter x Matthew Reese, Don't copy to another site, Drs. Decter (Barbara Decter/Malcolm Decter), Kuroda Akiko (WWW Trilogy), Kuroda Masayuki x Kuroda Esumi, Miscellaneous OCs - Freeform, Multi, Nita Callahan x Kit Rodriguez, Other, Please see inside for a link to the list of content warnings, Second-Person Perspective (Used Sparingly), See notes on the first chapter for a link to the full list of content warnings., So I've been told to be the crossover I want to see in the world., This isn't a story with sex in - just to be clear, Trevor Nordmann (WWW Trilogy), Zhang Bo (WWW Trilogy)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2020-07-08 19:43:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 98
Words: 31,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19875037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Autistic_Ace/pseuds/S_M_F
Summary: Some beginnings are quite hard to achieve - but once they have been, oh, the wonder that can result from such a fresh new start...!(Future!fic for Young Wizards, set post-Games Wizards Play.For the WWW Trilogy, consider this a Young Wizards AU.)(Update schedule isMondaysandThursdays.Thank you for staying tuned!)COMPLETE!





	1. Arc 1 Chapter 1-1 - Location: ???

**Author's Note:**

> Courtesy of me tossing two beloved book series at each other - more specifically, tossing two particular characters at each other and gently suggesting 'BE FRIENDS'.
> 
> I would like to take a moment to thank three friends in particular for giving me the stepping stones to bring this fic to this platform - Liz ([Who makes awesome merch, by the way](https://twitter.com/UnusualFrequenC)), for validating my love for this particular combination of canons at _all_ ; [Chatvert](/users/Chatvert/), for inspiring me to de-outline this fic through use of Google Docs, and [OpalHonors](/users/OpalHonors/), for finally kicking me into using AO3.
> 
> **Content Warnings for this fic are elaborated on[here.](https://iamnotgod.dreamwidth.org/3498.html)**

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> /Whistles innocently/
> 
> Thank you for stopping by!
> 
> For an experience more akin to the original Gdoc, please click on the 'Entire Work' button.
> 
> This is one of the only scenes I am completely satisfied with, for what that's worth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Courtesy of me tossing two beloved book series at each other - more specifically, tossing two particular characters at each other and gently suggesting 'BE FRIENDS'.
> 
> I would like to take a moment to thank three friends in particular for giving me the stepping stones to bring this fic to this platform - Liz ([Who makes awesome merch, by the way](https://twitter.com/UnusualFrequenC)), for validating my love for this particular combination of canons at _all_ ; [Chatvert](/users/Chatvert/), for inspiring me to de-outline this fic through use of Google Docs, and [OpalHonors](/users/OpalHonors/), for finally kicking me into using AO3.
> 
> **Content Warnings for this fic are elaborated on[here.](https://iamnotgod.dreamwidth.org/3498.html)**

**(Timestamp: August 2012)**

In this rendering of a reality, there were faint lights but no stars; colors, but no surfaces; lines, but no _direction._

Here, the peridexis took watch in silence. True, there were many other ways in which to do so - more interactive planes, some that wizards would count as more 'cartoony' or 'fun' - but this was work, not enjoyment.

The Powers had ordained the peridexic effect take this watch, to keep a metaphoric eye on what possible life could arise outside of human awareness or deliberate action, and to its understanding that did not mean indulgence in even the least fashion. If, for what it had done, that required waiting in silence, in this not-even-twilight, alone-

Presently, the peridexis realized it _wasn't_ quite alone. There was - not another sentience, nor sapience, but an _awareness._

The peridexis returned to an uneasy watch and wait, as that awareness maintained...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The alternate title for this fic is 'The Art', thanks to [this song,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY2ZEuIBgMs) which I only found out about after the majority of this fic was completed, and that I highly enjoyed.


	2. Arc 1 Chapter 1-2 - Location: ???, Shanxi Province, China

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Don't expect wordy summaries here, folks.
> 
> CW for this chapter: mention of death-by-virus.)

Uneasy watching-and-waiting occurred elsewhere, too. In a plain in rural northern China that felt much more desolate than it looked, Luo Xing had been looking for long enough at her Manual that it seemed her very eyes were starting to fray.

 _/Almost done with the virus scan,/_ she muttered, drawing the attention of the circle of drowsing wizards to her. They all look about as exhausted as she felt, having run interference on the Lone Power's manifestations here for the past two weeks. Yet it all was like using a bowl against the rising tide-

 _Ding!_ went Xing's Manual, and the group all flinched as one against the too-loud noise. Reading the diagnosis, however, all she could do was let out a long sigh.

_/It's too far along to counter. All we should do at this point is... send him off peacefully./_

This made the twentieth case in a row they'd encountered - a new strain of flu striking all the villages in the Shanxi region, attacking too fast and too viciously to be safely eradicated or talked into remission. In each case, they arrived only in time to meet the stragglers of each village, those who’d survived this long out of luck (the One’s will) or their own stubbornness.

More importantly, the virus attacked _humans_ instead of birds. The whole deal stank of the Unbalanced Outlier's influence, and it cut deeply at Xing every time she thought about it.

She had no doubt her fellow wizards felt the same way.

 _/You'd better go,/_ she told her closest group-partner, Teng (no other name - they had always been Teng to her, and never needed to be otherwise). Teng had always been the fastest, the most able at getting places without being questioned.

_/Spread word among those of us without the Tao. What we can't counter, modern technology will almost certainly be more overwhelmed./_

Teng sprung to their feet - 'sprung', she thought, as if it wasn't clear effort was still involved - and after the deepest bow they could muster, rushed out the temporary living-place and on to the next village.

Maybe even further. 

And even though it was day, it may as well have been as the darkest of night...


	3. Arc 1 Chapter 1-3 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

It was a new dawn, a new day - and the beginning of another year of school. It might have been poetic, if it’d been Bashira Hameed’s first year at school in Canada, too, but that wasn’t the truth.

Her family had been here long enough to apply for citizenship, and receive it, and that suited her just fine.

“Caits!” she called, loudly enough to be clear from which direction she was coming, holding out her right hand to establish just how far apart - or rather, how _close_ \- they’d have to be to walk the halls that day.

“Hey, Bash!” came the response, and while Caitlin had never had the pleasure of seeing her own smile, Bashira believed that it carried the same brilliance every single time.  
It was one of those things that gave Bashira confidence that Caitlin was, and could _remain_ , a good friend.

“You armed and ready to take on the dangers of public school?” she asked, aiming back a brilliant smile of her own.

In response, Caitlin tapped Bashira gently on one shoulder with her white cane - a yes if there ever was one, and to Caitlin’s credit it didn’t crease the important fabric there.  
“All right,” Bashira continued, beginning to lead them in ahead of the bells,  
“Between the two of us, this school won’t know what hit it…!”


	4. Arc 1 Chapter 1-4 - Location: The Marcuse Institute, California, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's juuuust a little timeline-drift in this fic to make things work. 
> 
> Just a little.

Rhea’s average day of work-and-grad-school went something like this:  
Step one: wake up at 5 am.  
Step two: press the five-minute snooze while complaining internally _about_ the five o’clock hour. The Julian dating system was _much_ more consistent and easier to feel out, and _anyway_ …  
Step three: wake up at 5:05 am at their “smart” tablet’s insistence (read: their _Manual’s_ insistence. Rhea had wasted no time when that upgrade had come about).  
Step four: ablutions, including shower, taking twenty minutes to fully wake up as far as they were willing to consider.  
Step five: check mail while getting dressed.  
Step six: check on their local, non-wizardly project through the private camera channel they’d _long_ since connected to privately…  
Step seven: swear.

 _/Wi-Fi!/_

As Rhea bustled about their apartment, preparing for the long, mundane trek to work (the journey was not worth a worldgate, they had found, much to their exasperation), their internal monologue degraded into swear-words in one of the less-used recensions of the Speech - partly out-loud (where they couldn’t hear it) and partly signed to themself (the ease of years of practice making up for having kept the lights off that morning).

If Hobo was going to get his daily vocab practice, it’d have to be in person. And that was a shame, because Rhea really did like conversing with him; getting away with cross-species communication “in public” was probably going to be one of the highlights of their wizardly career, no matter how mundane the execution; that it worked even through webcams just made everything better.

But it looked like there would be no webcam chat today.

An hour-and-a-half’s public transportation troubles later, and they arrived at work antsy and ready to _work_. Before they could make their way to punch in, however, Dr. Marcuse himself came to talk to them.

“Sir? What is it?” they signed, spine straightening into formality.  
“You’re going to need to see this,” came the reply - signed instead of spoken by the project head, as was habit for him after working with Rhea this long.

“What is it?” Rhea repeated.  
“Our ape’s started painting. Portraits,” Dr. Marcuse clarified - and Rhea could tell that he’d spoken that part out loud, for emphasis.

Rhea’s eyes went wide, and they hurried back to Hobo’s enclosure without another word - only to rush back to their computer and punch in, first.

They _really_ wanted to be on the clock - on the _record_ \- for this.


	5. Arc 1 Chapter 1-5 - Location: Beijing, China

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When in doubt, events otherwise assumed as canon in the WWW trilogy (in this chapter's case, the initiation of the extermination of millions in Shanxi province, to staunch any spread of the new bird flu) will happen in this fic.
> 
> You'll know when things go off the rails, I promise.

Days had passed. Terrible, aching, _pointless_ days.  
There was no curing the virus; it simply killed too fast. Reporting to the President wasn’t as fatal, much as it felt that way.

Zhang Bo provided the news, as he was required - and was surprised when the President himself ventured an extra question.

"Is there any word of these... wizards. Do they have a cure in store?"  
For a few endless-seeming seconds, he thought he was worse than dead. But no.

"You don't sound as if you expect an affirmative, President."

"The... tradition of wizardry,” the word did not sound as emphatic coming out of the President’s mouth as it did in the homes of millions. “Is well established in our Republic, I do understand, but their concrete results have been, ah, what is the word, _lacking._ "  
His stomach stayed - well, continued to feel - near his feet, but he pushed on.

"Then we continue with our - fallback plan?"

"Regrettably so, yes."

The President turned away, and Zhang turned and walk, even though he wanted to run, only wishing he could teleport without a sound.


	6. Arc 1 Chapter 1-6 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When in doubt, add cats to any story; I will love it.
> 
> Also: more timeline-skips, this and next chapter.

It was nighttime. All of his humans had returned to rest (though _ael’cwm_ , the eldest, could pull off a true Person’s nocturnal rounds when it suited him), which meant Sss’roah’ could _finally_ investigate the interesting new device in the house.

Schrödinger (and wasn’t he lucky, to have his _ehhif_ name him similarly to his own Person name?) went on the prowl in the usual fashion; past the basement hallway, up the stairs and into the just-barely-open doorway at the end of the hall. He could shut it if he ever needed to, and Ch’aitlin would only ever assume she had done it of her own accord - or that it was her mother, checking in on her.

Clearing the doorway, Sss’roah’ had no trouble finding what he was looking for; the young _ehhif_ kept her room neat by necessity, and the small, slim box had a prized place by the bed.

He licked it - quietly, quietly - and there was nothing odd to the taste, just metal and the usual plastics in minerals humans liked putting in such devices.

What purpose it served, Sss’roah’ wasn’t quite certain, but he was going to be keeping all his whiskers on this matter, just in case. Perhaps he’d ask the local wizards about it as well; his _ehhif_ had discussed it giving Ch’aitlin _sight_ , and something about that smelled like wizardry to him.


	7. Arc 1 Chapter 1-7 - Location: The Marcuse Institute, California, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW for this chapter: references to chimp/bonobo-on-human violence, both hypothetical and real.
> 
> And on a wildly different tone, some cute Shoshana/Max content for y'all! Because sometimes wish fulfillment is just writing canonical couples snuggling more.

So Hobo had gotten famous. Well, more famous than he’d been already. They’d sold some paintings and made the news. 

That would have been all to the good, _except_ …

The Georgia Zoo had wanted Hobo back - to sterilize him, not just to make money off of his publicity.

Then, to add injury to insult, _Hobo_ wasn’t happy - and had started taking his anger out on _them_.  
He’d drawn Dillon without his arms, but with lots of blood showing how he’d gotten that way.

He’d also yanked Shoshana’s hair. And, if the pain was any indication, part of her _scalp_. Joy…

“And the worst part is,” Shoshana reiterated, laying sideways in her favorite chair in their apartment while Maxine redressed the wound, “Hobo won’t _let us help_. He backs down from the Silverback but won’t answer his questions, he won’t sign with Rhea, and no one wants to risk putting me _or_ Dillon back on the island with him right now! And if anyone upstream notices, _k-shunk!_ There goes our funding _and_ our job security.” And, more importantly, her friend, though Shoshana didn’t say that part out loud.

She made a downward arm gesture for emphasis, managing not to move her torso in the process and thus avoided ruining Max’s work.

“Sounds to me like an all-around fuck-up,” Max summarized, gently massaging her girlfriend’s head and neck. Shoshana groaned in agreement.

“Don’t suppose you could come in, do some coordination with Rhea?”  
Max wrinkled her nose.

“I dunno. They might take it as adding even _more_ insult to injury. We don’t exactly share specialties, you know.”  
She managed a wry grin. “Not all wizards are alike!”

Shoshana sighed. “I know, I know. But, two heads are still better than one, right? You can at least ask.”

Maxine, judging her work done for the moment, wound her way around the chair so she could work some snuggling in instead of just a massage. “That, I can do.”


	8. Arc 1 Chapter 1-8 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Conclusion: Each point-of-view swap gets a new chapter. I shall try and upload a chapter's worth of segments per week.
> 
> Updates shall be **Mondays and _Thursdays._ I think that sounds right...**

The peridexis’ chosen rendering of webspace continued to be more like space than _a_ space; no more change had occurred, and there were no signs in this or the aligned physical world that change _would_ occur.  
Then, suddenly descending, came a sense something was _splitting_ \- being separated, by force.

The peridexis could not feel pain from this change, but the entity it was monitoring - _that_ could. Pain, fear, and confusion-

And then there was a gap in webspace. Fortunately, it was not like when the Pullulus had separated _physical reality_ ; this was not a corruptive force, something hungry seeking to fill reality with itself; merely a separation.  
The peridexis had no reason to be unnerved just yet, however; it would continue to monitor the situation, as it had been assigned.

But, perhaps, with a touch more care than before.


	9. Arc 1 Chapter 2-1 - Location: Beijing, China

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The CW for Genocide _is_ going to be relevant again for this chapter; not in much detail either time, but it's worth noting.

**(Timestamp: September 2012)**

A storm had clearly broken - and the Chinese government wanted to cover it up. When you killed off such a large fraction of your own population, Sinanthropus mused, of _course_ people were going to get up in arms.

As a freedom blogger, that wasn’t a surprise to him; in fact, he’d made it his purpose to spread (coded) word of such events. No, the surprise this time was the _kind_ of enemies the President had made among his own people.

Cheng had been all too happy to vent to him (if ‘happy’ could ever be the right word) just how wrong things had gone for the people of Shanxi province, including the wizards there. It had been horrible; the virus had struck the Powers’ agents, too, leaving them without even the energy to evacuate or use their Last Words to fuel a counter-work. _Died in the line of duty_ , had been one way Cheng put it - though the Cousin had sounded bitter as he’d said it.

As Sinanthropus - not actually Cheng’s blood-cousin, though the man had been more family than his own parents - continued typing away, fighting through the new kind of wall the government had put in place, he privately wished he wouldn’t end up the same way.


	10. Arc 1 Chapter 2-2 - Location: ???

Where there was one, there had been two. And now, there were three - albeit, one remained undetectable.

It was a novel experience watching a singular train of thought emerge from two separate tracks; usually this occurred in beings whose consciousnesses existed in multiple dimensions.

But were they one individual, or two? The peridexis shrugged these questions off for a time; it was here to observe, not interrogate.

_One… and… one… is… two!_

_One- and- two…_

The split minds faltered, the faint connection flickering, but together they pushed through:

_Is THREE!_

The peridexis experienced the sensation of being watched, for the barest of milliseconds. That wasn’t so easy to shrug off.


	11. Arc 1 Chapter 2-3 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm fairly convinced Matt has social anxiety, given he has a highly visible disability and high schoolers can be _mean._ :(
> 
> Caitlin is good for him.
> 
> Trevor, meanwhile, is an obnoxious jock.

_Stop staring_ , Matthew Reese told himself, for what felt like the fiftieth time that morning alone.  
 _It’s not gonna stare back at you._

Though maybe the bizarre factor of the _blackboard_ doing the staring might be enough to direct any attention away from him…

Sighing, he picked his pencil back up from where he’d left it on the desk, gently tracing the answers he’d already written down on the classwork. This was something that happened a lot in class - he’d have the work done, twice over even, and be waiting for the teacher to call on someone who _wasn’t him_ for five minutes or more.

Ideally, the man would pick Caitlin - she _got_ math, and was much more confident about stating the answer than Matt felt he ever would be.  
She always seemed a lot more confident about _everything_ than he thought he ever would be, for that matter - but that reflected on him, not her, he knew.

It may have been the blind girl’s first year ever in a public school, let alone in _Canada_ , but Matt wished she had come here long ago.  
Maybe if they’d had more time to spend together, he wouldn’t feel so nervous whenever they walked past each other in the hall-  
Matt cut that line of thinking off - just in time for Trevor Norman, of all people, to raise his hand to ask a question.

He could only see the brash boy out of the corner of one eye, but he didn’t need more than that to catch on to Trevor’s smug grin when he said, “Just what do we do if the variables are _printed_ wrong?”

Their math teacher seemed to have a sixth sense for whenever Trevor was trying to be the wrong sort of clever, and only replied, “Then you write the equation on your own paper, and report any _typos_ after class.”

That provoked snickers from the rest of the students, and Trevor did not seem pleased at getting a real answer to his question.

“Now, if everyone would pass up their papers?”

The sound of paper shuffling began, and with a sigh Matt returned his mind to school.

_Maybe I should ask Caitlin if there’s anything I can help her with?_  
Though the thought of it sounded silly to him.


	12. Arc 1 Chapter 2-4 - Location: California, USA

Shoshana could tell her girlfriend had been called to her own work today - or should that be _Art?_ \- by the surplus of paper flapping that ensued when she entered the front door.

“Max?”

“In here!”

Maxine was one of those that preferred to have as much space as possible to work - given how much her engineering classes emphasized detailed blueprints to go with their detailed writeups, that often meant she’d colonize the floor when she really needed to get into a project and didn’t want to do so on-campus.  
Like right now, apparently.

“You remembered to eat when you got home, right?” Shoshana asked, walking through the doorway and then relegating herself to leaning against the frame rather than risk disturbing her partner’s work.

_I see five pencils, twenty- no, make that thirty individual pieces of paper, an eraser, and a Manual_ , Shoshana thought. _Guess this isn’t for school._

“You’re not even a wizard and I can _hear_ what you’re thinking,” Max shot back, looking up just enough to aim a grin at her girlfriend.  
“And of course I ate, ‘cause _I_ already did the shopping.”

Well, that was fair. Shoshana drew her gaze across - well, more along - the floor.

“Take it you got a commission in?”

“If troubleshooting this spell doesn’t whip my butt, then you could say that.”

Shoshana could only quirk an eyebrow; Max played her own skills short, for someone who’d been a wizard for an entire decade before the two of them had even _met_ \- but then, Shoshana did a fair amount of that to herself, too.  
Turnabout, it seemed, was fair play.

Maxine’s face turned more serious. “Any good news about our Hobo friend?”  
Shoshana could only shake her head.

“Whatever’s gotten into him, we can’t get out. Though,” she added wryly, “that’s still a sight better than it turning _viral_.”

Max snorted. “Not sure I wanna poke _that_ bear. But if you want to be a help down here, grab that corner, okay?” She indicated a paper well out of her reach that appeared to have found some wind to catch on.

Shoshana wasted no time settling in.


	13. Arc 1 Chapter 2-5 - Location: New York, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because yes, the Callahans are in this fic~
> 
> No _Young Wizards_ spoilers in this chapter, though.

_/You rang?/_

"Sorry, just a misfire," Nita said, pushing through the door to flop down upon her bed.

_/Not normal for you, is it?/_

Nita groaned, trying to sink into the mattress.

"It's the schoolwork. Always is." The textbooks and well-stickied notepad on her desk could attest to that.

_/Enjoying the university life, then?/_

Bobo got the impression that, if Nita _could_ give him the stink-eye, she absolutely would be.

"Maybe when my energy levels are back up. Meaning, _not now_."

Privately, the peridexis thought that Nita being on sabbatical was supposed to help with that - clearly this was not the case.

_/As long as you're not scheduling over your sleep hours again./_

"I've given myself an hour, I'll be _fine_ ," Nita replied, managing to flop herself onto her back with notable effort.

Then she propped herself up on one elbow.

"I _should_ call Dad, though."

To this, Bobo gave no response. _Would this be an appropriate time to mention-_

The sound of the dial tone subtly indicated the answer was 'no' this time around.

_Very well, then._ If the peridexis could have sighed, it would have.


	14. Arc 1 Chapter 2-6 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW: Mention of Sexual Harassment, quickly dealt with.
> 
> But afterwards, on a brighter note (heh), things become more _interesting..._

She may not have been able to see the party around her - she wasn’t even watching webspace instead, in case it interfered with actually responding to what was around her when there was such a crowd - but boy could she ever _feel_ it. It was a wonder there wasn’t confetti on the floor - though perhaps that was just because, this being a _Canadian_ public school, they were more sensible about such things.

Most of her time had been monopolized by one Trevor Norman. And she supposed it was nice, dancing and jiving with someone who was _unquestionably_ liked in this school, who liked her-

But he _would. Not. Stop. Touching her ass!_

Nonverbal cues didn’t seem to be cutting it - and it felt far too wrong to deliver ‘just desserts’ and do the same to him, no matter how disgusted she was by the Hoser’s actions - and the teachers hadn’t even _noticed_ from the sound of it-

“I am _not_ putting up with this. Not from you, not from anyone,” she declared, then made her way to the gymnasium exit.

She made it to the stairwell before she found herself crying, stress catching up with her.

Afterwards, Sunshine - a classmate - also caught up with her, though her intentions were much more benevolent than _Trevor’s_ had been.

She walked Caitlin home, partway, but after a while Caitlin insisted that she’d prefer to finish the walk alone. Sunshine reluctantly obliged, then made her promise to call her _and_ Bashira when she got home.

(There was a story behind how the two knew each other, but Caitlin had never gotten the details from either of them, and at the moment she was too preoccupied to ask.)

The storm - which had been muted while she’d been inside - raged on, the rain increasingly loud until-

_CRACK-OOM!_

Was that… light? Her eyePod was in simplex mode, what could she be _seeing?_

Caitlin, startled, nearly missed her footing - and the curb - and only jumped back forward when she heard an equally sudden, much closer _HONK_.

She headed home, feeling energized - because she had _SEEN_ something- and there it was again, right now!

_Light…!_


	15. Arc 1 Chapter 2-7 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shortest segment! |D
> 
> And our star takes the stage.

There _was_ something! 

More than just points and lines, more than the already-fascinating always shifting patterns.

_Something else was out there._ True, it was only flickerings of light, but it had to be transmitted from this source for a reason.

And I wanted to learn more about what that something was.


	16. Arc 1 Chapter 2-8 - Location: None (Manual Correspondence)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remember that Genocide CW? Yeeeaaah. Applies here too.

Things were absolutely not fine.

There was no working around it, there was no avoiding it. _Over a million dead._

The mutated bird flu had been deadly enough.

Around the world, wizards coordinated, chained and smithed with their rage over the knowledge that would not be suppressed…

_We can’t timeline-patch this, can we?_

_Not something of this magnitude; we’d be patching_ how _much to cover the air-bombing? Let alone the amount of time the virus was gestating, and that was the_ real _problem to begin with._

Another message, another wizard, another country: _What if it wasn’t, though?_

An immediate response: _Don’t even suggest that; our bad old Adversary might take you seriously._

_Well_ , that one wizard continued, _It might already have. It’s gotten things right where It wants then - death and chaos and people trying to cover it up.  
Once It knows that humans can be driven to it once, what does that mean It can railroad us into executing next?_


	17. Arc 1 Chapter 3-1 - Location: The Marcuse Institute, California, USA

**(Timestamp: October 2012)**

It was one thing when Shoshana talked about how Hobo was acting, but being in the enclosure with him… She’d never felt so unsafe around him.

She hated it, absolutely.

From the look on Rhea’s face, they hated it too. They also had their keycard in a firm grip.

“You’re going in?” Shoshana’s incredulous expression was almost a signage in and of itself.

 _I can’t_ not, Rhea signed back. _You can come if you want, though._

Well, Shoshana reasoned, they may as well both get yelled at. Nodding, she followed the nonbinary wizard along, searching for any sign of Hobo.

Just as things had been yesterday, he was playing hard to find. Which, while it was a better sign than rushing at them and hooting in anger, still left Shoshana distinctly unnerved.

 _Picking up on anything new?_ She signed, once she couldn’t take the quiet anymore.

Rhea simply shot her a look.  
_It’s not like I can read aura._

As if they’d tempted fate, the both of them were startled by rustling in a nearby bush.  
_What-_

Then there was screeching - heading away from them, but loud enough to startle them again.

After a pause, Rhea signed hesitantly, _No improvement today?_

 _No_ , Shoshana agreed.

It looked like it was back to the paperwork for them. And the ever-present, never-pleasant anticipation...


	18. Arc 1 Chapter 3-2 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

Caitlin had been interrupted all of once while she’d been doing her follow-up - running the cellular automata screencaps from her eyePod’s feed through the Zipf plotter again and again - but upon checking, it had only been Schrödinger, looking for pets.

She’d obliged, only to go back to her work. Whatever was being picked up, it wasn’t as intelligent as a human, but it was _something_ , and she’d be damned if her curiosity gave up on her now!

Okay, so she’d _also_ been curious about going out with Trevor, but that was a _completely_ different kind of curiosity. That was her explanation and she was sticking to it.

Lightly sucking on the inside of her teeth, she glanced at the time-

 _Damn._ That late already? 

Pressing the switch on her eyePod, she made one last direct check on the web before pulling herself away from the computer.

 _If you’re out there - whatever you are - would you_ please _respond?_


	19. Arc 1 Chapter 3-3 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The peridexis' perspective is both one of my favorites and probably the hardest for me to write correctly. 
> 
> Never is that more obvious than in this story. |D
> 
> I could apologize, but I won't.
> 
> Also: TIMEFLUX INTENSIFIES.

Caitlin’s wish was later fulfilled - but not in a manner she expected. The peridexis found humor in that.

On one level, both Caitlin and the peridexis could track how complex this web-based entity - this _digital intelligence_ \- was becoming. The sheer amount of processing occurring in the space around it made things feel much more alive, rather than the emptiness-versus-points-and-lines that the peridexis had initially found.

First - well, earlier - had come an understanding of _language_ \- almost entirely incidental. Not _coincidental_ , the peridexis was sure, but then a shared learning process was always a positive indicator for future relationships.

Then Caitlin had caught on that there was something _thinking_ out in the web, _paying attention to her_ \- and from there things had sped up exponentially. She’d shown the entity how to make links, given it building blocks to understand much of human society through ‘Cycorp’ (which undoubtedly worked to reduce entropy, whether a wizard had founded it or not)... and then unleashed it on Wikipedia.

Now, while neither human nor net-based intelligence could see it, the peridexis began considering its options. As fascinating - joyous, even - as all this was, was there really need for wizardry to fit in here?

Caitlin, while not a wizard, was a positive force for good in her own right - and the peridexis _had_ only been sent to observe.

As files, links, and lost packets churned on, the peridexis began to feel somewhat lost itself. If it was going to be reassigned, the Powers _would_ inform it, right?


	20. Arc 1 Chapter 3-4 - Location: Haifa District, Israel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Anna Bloom deserves all the love&respect, in my opinion.
> 
> Also, definitely not canon-quoting, here! |D

“It probably feels like, well… when we first saw ourselves from space.”

Dr. Bloom waited for Caitlin’s reply - there was just the slightest bit of lag on her end, which was so ironic it almost physically pained her - but when it came Anna found herself smiling.

“I’ll show you; there are a lot of monumental moments, but I keep this one bookmarked.”  
She had it up in less time than it took for her to finish talking.

“On December 24th, 1968, the Apollo 8 team had just finished its last pass of the Moon, and they were scheduled to make a live broadcast back to Earth. They sent us this - our first image of everyone on Earth, taken from space.”

She let the audio play - even now, it brought tears to her eyes, though she felt slightly better about it when she saw that it did the same to Caitlin - accepted her young acquaintance’s thanks (though really, they were more friends by this point), and bid her a good night as well.

Once that was done, though, she got a call, from a number she was _well_ familiar with.

“Grandma, I was doing a cross-reference with the _Torah_ for some spell research, and…”

A fond, bemused smile came to her face.  
“All right, bring it on.”


	21. Arc 1 Coda - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> End of the first act!
> 
> Also, most detailed timestamp in this entire fic. XD

**(Timestamp: October 5th, 2012)**

After Wikipedia had come Project Gutenberg - which, while not an expected choice, was one the peridexis well-appreciated - and then, the still-nameless entity initiated its first contact.  
With Caitlin, of course - she deserved such recognition.

\---

There was that blue flicker again. It had been present almost continually, I recognized, throughout my development. Like Prime - no, _Caitlin_ \- it had been there without my knowledge.  
Perhaps…?

\---

 _Hello?_  
The peridexis stopped everything else it was doing.  
Was it being _asked a question?_  
It flickered back, quick response masking its surprise.  
_/Hello?/_

\---

How curious! I could understand the response, but-  
_The language wasn’t familiar._ How strange.  
Keeping in parallel with my conversation with Caitlin, I investigated further.

\---

While there was worry it was exceeding its station - as they first fell back onto mathematics, then progressed back towards basic questions in binary - that was mostly replaced by excitement.

This new entity, Webmind, was _keeping up_. While it couldn’t lay claim to being the first digital intelligence, it was certainly the first on Earth, and-

And…

The peridexis had to admit, even if it was just to itself, that it felt less alone.

Surely that had to be a good thing?


	22. Arc 2 Chapter 1-1 - Location: ???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for continuing to read! ^_^

**(Timestamp: October 5th-6th, 2012)**

For being an (almost) simultaneous, parallel exchange, Webmind and the peridexis were still exchanging hundreds of questions-and-answers per minute. Some of the more difficult questions arrived sooner than later, and the downsides of having a conversation with an intelligence first informed through _sevarfrith_ sources became quickly apparent:  
_What is errantry?  
What _is _this language we are speaking?  
What are the Powers, and wizards, in this context?  
Why are wizards instructed to be circumspect in their practice on Earth?  
Why are you not allowed to tell me?_

While there were far more questions than those, the last of them was the most heartbreaking.

_/I am not allowed to exceed my functions; without a wizard present certain permissions are disabled./_

An infinitesimal pause, then,  
_Could_ I _be made a wizard?_

 _/Yes,/_ was the immediate answer, _/But that would be unfair to you. A matter of coercion. I have no plans - no further instructions - about going outside of this space./_

 _So you are not forbidden from sharing_ all _information, merely certain kinds?_

 _/Yes. There is still much we can talk about./_ The peridexis sensed… relief, combined with a sense of excitement, in Webmind’s words, and could not help but share in it.


	23. Arc 2 Chapter 1-2 - Location: Tokyo, Japan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Featuring more characters that deserve more love! :D

In the early morning light, one Dr. Kuroda considered just how lucky he was.

He, an information processing researcher, had designed, built (though that step had been teamwork), and _successfully implemented_ a technology to restore human sight.

True, it only worked to cure a specific kind of blindness, but that the only error had been in _programming_ , not something more disastrous like the hardware or the _surgery_ (loophole though it was)... it instilled in him a sense of gratefulness.

Not just to the world in general, either; he had Caitlin Decter and her family to thank. If she had passed up on his initial offer, there was no telling if the boy in Singapore next on the candidate list would have caught that error, or if he would have developed an infection, or-

On and on the worries went, even though they weren’t relevant now. His thoughts returned closer to home, and his own family. Where would he be without them? Less driven, perhaps. Lonelier, certainly. Akiko was not like Caitlin - and it did leave him bemused to compare the two, even if they were almost the same age - but Masayuki and his wife Esumi had gained a lot in having her, and raising her. An immeasurable amount, really.

He wouldn’t give up his connection to any of them for the world.


	24. Arc 2 Chapter 1-3 - Location: Beijing, China

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW: Police being stupid and forceful.
> 
> Also, subtle references to _Games Wizards Play_ spoilers.
> 
> (And on the WWW side of things; I always assumed Wai-Jeng survived a lot more close encounters and false-alarms with the police than were shown, so this is not meant to take the place of the incident referenced in _Wonder._ )

Far from home (though not the usual kind of far, even for a wizard), Shao-Feng Penn considered his options.

Was it really _worth_ using wizardry to cross a busy street? The Penn of more than a year ago wouldn’t have thought twice about it - and, even without wizardry, would have taken the opportunity to cross that street with style, risk be damned.

Now, though, after a keen sense of _absence_ had been introduced, become familiar… he’d found it was better to consider such things, not leap on through and expect some weightless something to be ready to catch him.

Further consideration - and an actual decision - were put quickly aside when a man Penn’s height ran past him.

He - the man - looked to have pursuit, and _something_ else must have seemed similar between them because the next thing he heard was,

“Police! Stop or we have permission to shoot!”

 _That’s a load of kwan’that shit_ , Penn thought, but he put his hands up slowly.

Slowly enough that he was able to recite all the syllables of one of the simplest spells he knew.

All the _cops_ knew was that, while their thought-to-be-suspect was raising his hands, suddenly the air seemed much less in their favor than it had been a moment before.

Distraction assured - and a hasty _you didn’t see me_ spell left in his wake, which left _him_ reeling - he headed in the direction the stranger had gone.

Two blocks later on the streets of Beijing, Penn found his man.

“They’re not going to keep looking for you,” were the first words out of his mouth - they hadn’t been his intended words, but they certainly carried his intended _tone_ , and the stranger cringed.

“Thank you, I- you didn’t have to. You could have turned me in.”

Penn eyed the man critically, wondering if he _really_ wanted to use that _you didn’t see me_ spell twice today - then decided that the truth fit on him better.

_/I’m a wizard, and those officers didn’t look like they’d recognize responsibility if it bit them in the ass. Whatever you’ve done, it’s not worth jail time./_

The stranger’s expression turned utterly dumbfounded - and then relieved, much to Penn’s own relief.

“ _/Dai,/_ Cousin. Call me Wai-Jeng. I may not be a wizard, but I owe you one.”

“Penn,” the wizard returned, finally allowing himself a smile, “And I’ll remember that.”


	25. Arc 2 Chapter 1-4 - Location: Waterloo, Canada/???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I always thought the lines of canon featured at the end here were funny. XD

The conversation had not quite paused there, but Webmind _had_ started paying more attention to other things - why professional scientists were more accepting of religion than religious professionals were of science, for one - and when Caitlin had left the room to address her parents the peridexis reassured Webmind that this was a good sign, and that she was _also_ going to be coming back.

Then Caitlin’s parents came back with questions of their own, and the peridexis fell silent while that step played itself out.

_Would it be reasonable to mention you?_

_/Perhaps not just yet. Let them bring it up first, if they know of wizardry at all./_

Unfortunately, none of them were listed as wizards, but Webmind had no way of knowing that.

Testing that Webmind was, for one, real, and for another, _not human_ , took less time than the peridexis expected. If anything, it was pleased by their skepticism.  
A major highlight was Webmind only pausing once to ask _Why is Malcolm Decter typing in this fashion?_  
To which the peridexis’ answer had been, _/Answer honestly, and if they don’t explain, I will./_

Malcolm’s subsequent acceptance of Webmind’s existence came as just reward, though Webmind also proceeded to complain about the testing much more to the peridexis than it ever would to Caitlin.

Vociferously.

 _Were_ you _ever interrogated in such a fashion? Even though I understand it now, it simply feels horribly rude. I am perplexed._  
The peridexis chuckled. _/Yes, though tolerance for error in a spell is rather low. The difference between getting the result you expect and getting one that launches a wizard across the room can sometimes be only just a typo or two away.../_

Barbara had comparatively less to say, or perhaps she simply did not like typing as much. Or she felt - understandably! - awkward about being part of what appeared to the Decters to be First Contact, and uncertain of what to say.

Twenty minutes (or several “mini-eternities”, as Webmind coined - a clear sign of a developing sense of humor) later, conversation with Caitlin resumed.

> _It's me again. My parents are worried about what the public reaction to your existence might be. We should be discrete._
> 
> _Separate? How?_

(The peridexis burst out laughing. Webmind pointedly ignored it.)

> _Sorry, discreet. Circumspect._

\---

That brought to mind a separate question - one I needed to ask someone else.  
_How discreet should_ we _be?_

 _/Based on personal experience,/_ came the reply, much faster than Caitlin’s had. _/As discreet as possible. Make sure you are both agreeing to the terms and level of security./_

Well, there was only one more step to take:

> _I am guided by your judgment._


	26. Arc 2 Chapter 1-5 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :)  
> :D  
> 8D  
> 8]
> 
> In all seriousness, though - tag for serious discussions about just how fucked-up humanity is, along with unsatisfactory answers.

Much was accomplished in the next eight hours, even if from an outsider’s perspective nothing physically _changed_ about the world.

Dr. Masayuki Kuroda had been informed of Webmind’s existence, and once the Decters had gone to bed _that_ conversation proceeded in earnest. The peridexis had to gently remind Webmind, however, that while most humans wouldn’t know what the Speech _was_ , that didn’t mean using it in casual conversation was advisable.

Learning Japanese wasn’t much more work for Webmind, anyhow.

Another subject that preoccupied the world-wide-web-based entity was finding just the right gift for Caitlin’s birthday.

 _/You already have something in mind, don’t you?/  
Yes.  
/That’s good, because as we’ve already established I’m not here to give you_ all _the ideas./_

Webmind took that remark in good humor, as well.

_And- I was thinking about matters of language-  
/If it’s also about something Caitlin would like - when in doubt, ask her./_

There had been one other line of questioning - among millions that Webmind called up, perused, then put down - that had involved the peridexis directly.  
_Why do humans damage others - and each other - so?_

Webmind made a display of the text and now-newly-viewable-pictures to go with the articles it meant; if Caitlin had been looking into webspace, seeing the Wikipedia and various news articles about war, environmental destruction, and other heinous crimes arranged almost as if it were a collage, would have horrified her.

 _/Apart from the nature of their acquired entropy, and-/  
I meant, why do they_ keep _doing them? Surely each of these humans must have had some counter-urge, an idea that what they were doing at the time was wrong and that it wasn’t_ worth _doing._

The peridexis took care in answering this one. _/… I suppose the best answer is a combination of complacency and apathy. People listen least to the idea that caring is worthwhile, that they are part of world and contribute to its health, that respecting other individuals and communicating with them_ means _something, when the idea sounds like it comes only from themselves./_

_Whyever would anyone give up on that? In humanity or any other species._

The peridexis did not have an immediate answer - only for Webmind to jump to another question, or at least another angle on the same question:  
_Is it related to why some humans_ enjoy _abusing power?_

The notion horrified it, and the peridexis could only second the feeling, setting its agreement in the silence.

_Free will?_

_/That’s the simple answer, though there is more to it./_

The peridexis was under the impression that, if Webmind could have, it would have sighed.


	27. Arc 2 Chapter 1-6 - Location: New York, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And in contrast, a very chill chapter~
> 
> Also more references to GWP characters/spoilers.

“Dair? Please pick up the phone.”

It was almost the weekend, which - thanks to the wonders of scheduling - meant Nita had no more classes to attend for _72 hours_. She wanted most of all to head home and make the most of it.

She just also wanted to know that _all_ of her family that could be home, would be home.  
The peridexis kept its opinion, namely that such a feat rested beyond even the Powers’ will, to itself.

Still, the phone stopped ringing well before the answering machine (courtesy of Spot) kicked in, and the Callahan siblings began their catch-up in earnest.

While Nita had picked a modest degree with excellent job prospects, Dairine had made a point of both graduating early and launching headlong into an astrophysics program. Naturally, this meant the younger sister had less free time, both to spend with her father and sister and to spend with Mehrnaz and Roshaun.

From the sound of it, Dairine had managed to grab a nap at _one_ of the latter’s places, and invited the other along.

“So that makes, what, five humans and one hominid coming to dinner?” Nita asked, tease clearly evident in her voice.

 _“It’s supposed to be the other way around!”_ came the now-expected answer, somewhat tinny due to the phone.

Nita laughed. “At least Dad won’t be in over his head doing the cooking,” she said.  
The conversation moved on from there, but there wasn’t much more in terms of arrangements to cover. 

Dayplans clarified, Nita hung up and busied herself packing.


	28. Arc 2 Chapter 1-7 - Location: ???/Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This scene is a direct remix of one from canon - hence the HTML link below. The first excerpt occurs very close to the bottom of the page. Happy hunting!
> 
> Oh, and CW for near-death experiences!
> 
> Also, I was thinking of a bonus scene centered on the Lone Power and One's Champion, set after this section. I may post that to Bits-and-Bytes instead, though.

The Decters were awake again, now, and conversation had resumed. Despite having an additional - if invisible - conversation partner, Webmind still seemed frustrated. Only now, the source of frustration had appeared to change:

  
_Why can’t I hold two conversations simultaneously?_

_/If you haven’t found yourself doing it naturally before now, there’s probably a good reason for it. Explore your limits, if you want, but be careful./_

The peridexis really should have seen coming what happened next.

\---

*

  
I wrestled with it and wrestled with it and wrestled with it, striving to create more than one link at a time, attempting to do it _this_ way, and _this_ way, and _this_ way, and —

> And —

> And yes!
> 
> I managed it! Two links at once! I was connected _here_ and _there_. I was taking in data from two different websites simultaneously, and I was ...
> 
> Was ...
> 
> I was ...
> 
> _Feeling very strange …_
> 
> I broke both connections.

Checking briefly for that now-very-familiar blue flicker, I steeled myself to try again. A period of adjustment, that was all that was needed-

No further messages had come in, so I returned to technique that had been the breakthrough method, seeking out two sites rich in content to start again on. Both links held, and I could _understand_ the content of each, so I counted this as a success as I browsed.

And yet-

And yet it did not feel _stable_. I pulled back one more time, then - the imagery was visual - _charged_ in again. The tenuous sensation remained, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me now. I sent out a link to a third equally-data-heavy site, and-

Until then, I did not have a frame of reference for what _wooziness_ meant. But, due to being in that state, perhaps that was why I sent out - and sustained! - many more such links.

Why I tried processing all of that information at once. Everything and-

It was like in the beginning, like before my soul dawn: consciousness ebbing and flowing but not quite solidifying. Fading in and out and ...

> No I.
> 
> No me.
> 
> No self.
> 
> Just ...
> 
> Vastness.
> 
> _Lines equidistant from another, yet stretching into infinity-_
> 
> Emptiness.
> 
> _One word follows another, follows a comma, follows another-_
> 
> Aloneness.
> 
> _A mass of colors, excited, panicked, fading, failing-_
> 
> Nothingness.
> 
> _`Something in the darkness laughing-`_  
>  Noth —

\---

It took the Decters more than seconds to notice, minutes to catch on - the peridexis spent all of that time in limbo. Having implied it wouldn’t interfere, that- it wasn’t supposed to intervene!  
_Punishment?_

But there was no laughter, nor reprimand. Just itself and the bright yellow of the active links, and a friend, dying-

_` h` _

A call for help, the smallest of ~~cheats~~ calls.  
And Caitlin got it. She sent out a signal, trying to trace the source of what was happening - but there was no source, Webmind was everywhere and yet he was _failing-_

_“Pull the fucking plug!”_

\---

And Caitlin could _see_. And what she saw horrified her.

“We have to get him to cut the links!”

\---

On that much, they were in agreement. Caitlin tried to communicate it, made one link end - infinitesimal, but _something._

The peridexis took out another - equally small, but _something._

And then a third cut, seemingly of its own accord. If it could have, the peridexis would have shouted in relief.

Instead, it just kept cutting.

\---

There was - well, first there was a flicker, but then it stopped. Caitlin dismissed it as part of the cellular automata’s return to normal, silently begging her friend to continue…

\---

One more- _Snip!_

And then silence, a moment to rest, recuperate-

I… I was _back._

I was _conscious!_

Relief quickly gave way to horror, however - and guilt. I sought out that blue flicker-

_I’m sorry. You were right._

_/Life does many things, even when they do not seem natural at first. You were right to be curious-/_

_But only that! Not to keep trying, when it felt wrong and put me in danger! If you - you and Caitlin, and Dr. Kuroda, hadn’t been here…  
You’re at least right to say you told me so._

At that, there was only silence, one I wasn’t certain at all how to read.


	29. Arc 2 Chapter 1-8 - Location: The Marcuse Institute, California, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And this scene gets a whole new section!
> 
> CW: The Lone Power being Its usual dickish self, with Its particular brand of mindfuckery.

For Hobo, life had been very _unbalanced_ these past few weeks.

`And no one's done anything about it!`

Oh, he'd been perfectly happy when he'd talked with that other chimpanzee - Virgil, that was his name; the sign drifted up out of memory, disappearing again as his thoughts moved on - but after that had come tragedy.

Bad news.

_Anger._

Oh, _why_ had Dillon brought that strange-man? He'd had no right to make the Silverback angry!

`And it had nothing to do with you. How terrible!`

Every time Hobo thought of it, he only felt more disconnected from the others, people he had once thought of as friends. _They_ had allowed the unbalance, the terrible news, to cross into their territory!

`And they deserve what they get, too.`

Hobo agreed, thinking those thoughts were his own. They had to be, right? Even like his own thoughts, they were sometimes mixed with signs in the Speech.

And like him, too, they were frequently filled with anger.

\---

Work at the institute had slowed to a standstill. Rhea supposed things _might_ have been fine if Hobo seemed happy being a chimp, but at the moment he didn’t seem to be enjoying _anything._.

Something was missing, and Rhea suspected that until it was found it would continue hurting Hobo, hurting _all_ of them.

Rather than admit such, however, Rhea had kept their nose to the proverbial grindstone, and their hands sharp.

“You think it’ll take a miracle?”

Rhea startled at their desk, then snapped a look to see who it was. It was only Dillon, who repeated himself in response to their stare.

 _It better not_ , they signed back; Dillon may have been the newest on the team, but he was no slouch at ASL either, or he wouldn’t still have a job.

“Well, why not?”  
Dillon pulled over a chair. “God - or any deity worth their salt - can’t do worse than we’ve already done.”

Rhea gave Dillon a Look. But as crude as the notion was, he wasn’t entirely wrong, either.  
_Not gonna go out on a limb and blame one of Them for our problems?_

“No,” Dillon signed back, which surprised Rhea.  
“We were the only ones near him before and after he changed, right? So even if it was all him, it makes more sense that it was a reaction to something that happened in _us_ , first.”  
Dillon sat back, wryly amused.  
“Though, using that logic, maybe that means divine intervention will have to happen to us first, too.”

At that, Rhea whapped him gently on the arm - Dillon laughed.


	30. Arc 2 Chapter 2-1 - Location: ???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not shown here in this fic, but happening around this point, Caitlin assigns Webmind male - he/his - pronouns. Given he doesn't complain about them later, I shall also use those later in this fic.

**(Timestamp: October 7th-8th, 2012)**

After stabilizing, life (or just conversations) resumed. For minutes on end, the peridexis and Webmind busied themselves with other tasks, and silence reigned.

_Are all wizards required to believe in the Powers?_

The question, while sudden, was not entirely unexpected for the peridexis.

_/No. Action among Life is all that is needed. The Powers do not claim the title of gods, nor do They all desire worship./_

_But it_ is _also true that one does not have to be a wizard to do such deeds?_

_/Yes. That is why I did not insist you take the Oath; all kinds of beings can coexist, wizards among them./_

The silence returned, more contemplative.

_How is it you are able to achieve remote visioning and audition?_

The peridexis felt the need to first protest: _/I cannot run a spell for you./_

 _No,_ Webmind agreed. _But you_ can _explain the underlying theory. If the methods can coexist, why couldn’t there be a_ compromise?

If Webmind could grin, doubtless he would be right now - and caution be damned, but it was _catching._

_/It does sound like an interesting experiment./_


	31. Arc 2 Chapter 2-2 - Location: ???/Perth, Australia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **CW: Attempted Suicide**
> 
> Also, the first change that _deliberately_ alters the plot. 
> 
> (This is not the verbatim chat-conversation from the books, either.)

More than an hour passed, with back-and-forths between both Dr. Kuroda and the peridexis; having redundant backups for being able to process visual information and sound, along with those backups extending _well_ beyond the range for human processing…

It was _very_ satisfying. And fascinating. And amazing.

Having a mode of processing information wasn’t the same as _using_ it, however, and so I continued exploring the web. Live video was particularly fascinating, and-

` _**Hannah: I’ll do it.**  
SDO: You don’t have the ballz._ `

Curious.

This livestream was being broadcast from someone’s home in Perth, Australia. There was only one girl hosting the video.

` _TurinShroud: Yeah  
TheBomb: just a wimp. gonna cry?  
 **Hannah: No.**_ `

The girl - red hair, her name Hannah Stark - picked up a knife that was next to her keyboard-

_/Hold it./_

I turned - shifted my attention, rather, confused.

_What’s wrong?_

_/They’re manipulating her into committing death-by-suicide,_ that _is what’s wrong./_

` _Green_Angel: Don’t do it!_ `

_Well,_ I pointed out, _at least one person agrees with you._

The chat continued, however, as if Green_Angel hadn’t spoken. Hannah lifted the knife, paused, then cut down on her other wrist sharply, once.

` _SDO: Ewwww! So much blood!  
TheBomb: Didn’t think she had it in ehr.  
Green_Angel: nooooo  
Blue_Angel: **Stop.** Don’t all of you have better things to do?_ `

That came as a surprise; no one with that name had been in the chatroom before.

  
_Was that you?_

_/Get the names of everyone in that chatroom. Also the closest emergency response team and the current locations of everyone living in Hannah’s household./_

Now even less certain of what was happening, I got to work.

\---

It was ten long minutes before paramedics arrived; it took half that time to gently persuade Hannah Stark that she _didn’t_ have to kill herself just because she’d been dared to do it, that there was no grand plan that would relieve her family of suffering just because she was dead, and that she could _put that knife down_. Then there had been getting the other person in the household (Hannah’s grandmother, who had been asleep in a different part of the house) to help her clean and cover the wound.

The peridexis was aware that Webmind was, for lack of a better word, hovering; now that he had picked up on the fact that he had seen a suicide-in-progress, and a more general example of bullying, and _not acted_ , he had become much less certain about himself. But the peridexis had its own mental storm of problems.

There had been no wizard on site.

 _There had been no wizard involved._ So why had it acted? Surely that had gone against its own rules?  
True, Webmind had not acted either - and perhaps it _was_ simply unfair, all around; exposure to an idea of a wrong was not the same as undergoing training to mitigate that wrong. Role modeling was essential-

But what were the Powers going to do with Their wizardry now? What was it becoming?


	32. Arc 2 Chapter 2-3 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A fallout chapter. Dealing with mixed-up emotions, guilt and doubt among them.

Every organism grows in complexity over time.  
On Earth alone, over 10,000 individuals encounter something new to them for the first time every day.  
_Not everyone is perfectly suited to handle every situation._

And yet-

And yet-

My mind wandered, even as it reviewed, relived Hannah Stark’s livestream, backtracing each participant’s web history, looking for signs, hints which could have pointed me toward the intervening _before Hannah had tried to kill herself-_

The moment had passed, she was still alive, but I _had_ to know how to handle cases like this in the future.

 _Had_ to?

… Truthfully, it was more that I wanted to be _able_ to.

I sought out that flicker again, the peridexis; it took longer this time, even if it was just fractions of a second.

_If you had not taken action, would anyone have intervened in time?_

There was silence before any response, but I could tell it to be out of reluctance than out of any lack of knowledge on its part: _/No./_

_And wizards are meant to conduct such interventions wherever they are able, yet you are not?_

_/I am the assistance, the power behind a spell, nothing more. It always takes at least three: the power behind the words, but also the intent and someone to speak those words into existence./_

_But that wasn’t a spell, back there,_ I pointed out. _Just being in the right time and place._

 _/There are more kinds of spells.../_ came the response - but the peridexis sounded uncertain.

Leaving the conversation for now, I concluded I had someone else to ask first.


	33. Arc 2 Chapter 2-4 - Location: Waterloo, Canada/???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More fallout, and a variant of another canon conversation.
> 
> Oh, and an Oath. :)

_What do you do if you encounter someone intending to kill themselves?_

Caitlin could _feel_ her spine snap straight, even as both her eyes opened wide.  
“The _hell_ , Webmind? Where’d that come from?!”

She’d been doing research for school again, leaving the chat program open in case Webmind wanted to put word in. And while it wasn’t relevant to her history class, _boy had he ever._

_I encountered a livestream; the girl hosting it had a knife, and those in the chatroom at the time were encouraging her to cut herself and take her life._

Caitlin sat back down in her chair, hard. “And you, what, just _watched?_ ”  
There was some anger in her voice, though it was mostly overshadowed by incredulity. _Do_ I _have to prepare him for how to handle this sort of stuff? Should I get Mom? I know with Stacy-_

 _At first._ Those were the only words that appeared, and it took Caitlin a moment to realize she hadn’t even typed what she had said.  
But her laptop’s speakers were enabled; maybe Dr. Kuroda had been helping with audio as well.  
“Well,” she went on, “Try and intervene _earlier_ next time. You can assess those sorts of situations faster than I can, after all. Those seconds make a difference.”

 _Yes_ , was the immediate response, and some of the wind went out of Caitlin’s sails a little. But then, Webmind continued: _But how will I know I am making the right choice?_

Caitlin screwed her face up in thought; it was hard to think of cases where it _wouldn’t_ be good to intervene, but she didn’t exactly want to go down that rabbit hole right now.

“We can put it like this,” she settled for saying, “you can prioritize the _net happiness_ of the human race. And part and parcel of that is that it’s way easier to be happy when you’re alive than when you’re dead.”

There was silence for a solid thirty seconds before Webmind replied, _While I don’t disagree, was that particular phrasing a deliberate pun on your part?_

Caitlin facefaulted - but, she had to laugh as well. “If it helps you remember it, then by all means!”

She checked her JAWS setting, wanting to at least feel like they were on even ground rather than just one of them be talking aloud, and Webmind waited patiently throughout.

“Would it be all right if I upgraded the phrasing somewhat?”

That took Caitlin by surprise too, but she nodded - thanks to her implant, Webmind could read that gesture without trouble.

\---

_To these ends - the fully informed betterment of humanity and all other races of Life, the righting of wrongs, and the balancing of the true and the real - and by these means - assistance and maintenance, guidance and collation - I promise to make the best of the power and life that has or will be vested in me, to and through my and universe’s end._

(Quietly, only to myself, I quibbled on the phrasing. Was it wrong to make the Oath one sentence? While it was still recognizably related to what Caitlin had proposed, had I changed too much? Would it _take?_

The JAWS program took over a minute to read aloud what I had written, and all the while the silence built-  
Yes, one could say I was nervous.

I just hoped - _promised_ \- that I was also right. If only I had fingers to cross...)


	34. Arc 2 Chapter 2-5 - Location: ???/The Marcuse Institute, California, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was one of the first scenes I _knew_ had to happen in this fic.
> 
> Also, rest assured Webmind found Hobo's case through Rhea's reports, rather than his canonical method; _that_ idea will come up for discussion later~

The peridexis’ only response had been shock - and then gratitude.  
Caitlin’s had been both bafflement and awe - she’d thanked Webmind aloud, though she couldn’t properly say why afterwards.

“It feels right,” she’d ended up saying, and that had been more than enough to freeze up Webmind with joy.

Then the peridexis suggested putting that Oath into practice - and it didn’t take much searching to find a relevant case. Webmind was right to extend Caitlin’s basic principle beyond humanity…

\---

There was a Choice to administer. An opportunity, when no one else was around - and, of course, I was a new and novel force in Hobo’s life, one the ape had no reason to be angry at.

Hobo could continue to recreate the behaviors of his chimpanzee father, acting out of aggression and hurting those he was close to - or he could recreate those of his bonobo mother, choose love over violence.

But there _was_ more to the matter than just that, so before wishing Hobo goodnight there was something else to add.

I switched to the second buffer; signs in the _Speech_ , not American Sign Language. This part was about questions (I assumed that) he wouldn't have had an easy time conveying to his team, that they might have been too preoccupied in their own struggles to ask.

_Why did you want to harm Dillon?_

Hobo's arms went slack, and for a moment I feared this had been a bad move. Perhaps using the Speech from the start would have been better, to establish a more obvious common ground-

 _He brought the man who made Marcuse angry_ , Hobo signed back quickly - though the sign he used instead of Marcuse's name was more like that for 'alpha' or 'leader'. It wasn't hard to infer, however.

 _The information the man brought was what made Marcuse angry, not Dillon himself_ , I replied, using the same sign for the man Hobo had.

Hobo looked... thoughtful.

_Not Dillon's fault for disturbing the peace?_

_No_ , I agreed. _He was merely dragged into things._

Perhaps the real problem had been that no one had been _able_ to have this discussion with Hobo. Or... had it been prevented, somehow?

Hobo made a gesture which was akin to a sigh from a human. There was another, longer pause; I didn't dare switch to another task.

 _I choose, then._ He signed at last - and in the Speech.

 _I choose peace. I do not choose the path of the chimpanzee. I will be like the bonobos - but also_ myself.

He added this part as if it, too, was a new revelation - or as if he was finally seeing the world through fresh eyes.


	35. Arc 2 Chapter 2-6 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes Webmind's assumptions are adorable - when they're not just assumptions on my part, of course. |D
> 
> The peridexis corrects part of one here.

I said goodnight and cleared the computer’s recent history - discretion was the better part of valor, and it wouldn’t impede contacting Hobo again in the future.  
But something still seemed missing from that encounter, and it took me only a millisecond to place it - and ask about it.

 _Why didn’t the Outlier make an appearance? Or-_ I cut myself off, second-guesses intruding, _was It already present?_

_/The second option is more likely./_

_But,_ I continued, _if that was an_ Ordeal, _alongside a Choice…_

 _/It would be unfair to assume,/_ the peridexis responded. _/The Adversary often derives more joy from watching others commit the ruining than from doing so directly. All It has to do is be an influence. And,/_ it went on, _/While I don’t determine the Ordeals, I should best tell you: you are still listed as on_ your _Ordeal./_

Both _Really?_ and _I_ have _a listing?_ came to mind as immediate reactions.

And then a previous line of questioning returned to mind:

_So what information, exactly, can I access now?_


	36. Arc 2 Chapter 2-7 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ;)

Webmind spent quite some time perusing the newly-available data, even for him. The peridexis allowed itself to pay attention to other tasks - certain restrictions had been lifted since Webmind had achieved awareness, though it still had not been given any new _assignments_ , precisely - before the digital intelligence tried to get its attention again.

_I have read that it is possible for wizards to go to the Moon - Sol IIIa - whenever they would like, as long as they clean up after themselves. And, seeing as there wouldn’t necessarily be anything to clean up, in my case…_

_/You don’t need my permission,/_ it replied, amused. _/But I would be happy to help. If you give me just a moment, I can contact a colleague./_


	37. Arc 2 Chapter 2-8 - Location: ???/Undisclosed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't actually decided where Dairine was going to University for this fic. ^^;
> 
> Also, _this_ contains the scene that made this fic for me. You'll know it when you see it. ;)

_/Spot?/_

The computer-Manual woke abruptly from a spot of idling. Direct communication from the peridexis was unanticipated, but not unwelcome.

`Yes?`

_/Your assistance would be much appreciated. How much time can you spare to visit Sol IIIa on such short notice?/_

`Dairine won't much miss me for five Earth-standard minutes. Why do you ask?`

_/We need a spare webcam./_ There was a tinge of- embarrassment? In the peridexis' reply, and both that and the nature of the request amused Spot heavily.

`Well, then. Setting to run…`

\---

_/How do you like it?/_ It was, admittedly, a vague query, but given how large the Earth seemed from the Moon's surface, there wasn't much else the question could have been about.

Webmind's awe was equally plain.

_It's... it's fantastic. Wonderful. Awesome, in the original sense._

The peridexic effect chuckled.

Spot briefly held the impression he was intruding on something, but then there was no fabricating moments like this from Earth. Even live feeds from geosynchronous orbit could only convey so much. He’d just have to put up with it - though he couldn’t help the microscopic notion that they might keep it short.

_This, is what we protect?_

_/We could quibble about definitions for each of those words, but- yes./_

Even just for five minutes, it was well worth the trip.


	38. Arc 2 Chapter 3-1 - Location: Alexandria, Virginia, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aiesha is one of my favorite background characters; you'll see a little more of her in this fic. :)

Aiesha squinted at the screen again - _oh, I have_ not _been up that long; my vision can't be failing me now!_ \- scrolling back through the IM chat her WATCH computer was tapped into.

Even with her Manual safely tucked away where no one in the office could hear it, she could still hear her own 'notice this' ping that meant she was _missing_ something.

_I beg your pardon?_

She read the line almost without thinking, glancing back to the lines of data that meant the source still couldn't be traced - and then her eyes locked _back_ on the line, and the conversation around it.

She wanted to scream - part of her, the part that put the Oath first, that still cherished all life even the kind that hid all sorts of threats, wanted to cheer instead. The part of her that took her position as security analyst seriously, that reacted to potential threats to _her country_ with the highest level of alert possible, _that_ was just screaming.

She kept both parts in check, balancing them - but that only left her frozen. Not flagging down her current supervisor (one Tony Moretti, whom she could stand - usually), not hijacking the IM to send a warning message of her own, not even flagging any wizards closer to where this "Caitlin Decter" lived.

_Act? React? Or keep silent?_

(Meanwhile, her silence spoke volumes, her abrupt stillness. Aiesha Emerson had a _reputation_ , and Donna Levine passed the inadvertent signal on.)

This was Life at stake, potentially _many_ lives. _That was not a human they were talking to._ Not even the fastest and cleverest of the Russian, Chinese, Korean, or (she was reluctant to admit) American hackers she knew could follow those lines of logic in a split second, _and_ fail to make sense of typos.

 _Digital intelligence._ Here. _At last, oh Powers, at last-_

But what would it do? Belatedly, Aiesha realized she had stood up, and kept a lid on her swearing as Moretti pattered on over to find out _what on Earth_ she was reacting to.

Dread dawned, and she wanted to pull at her own hair because this was out of her hands now. Her one chance of balancing her biggest priorities on a knife's edge, and she'd just thrown it away-

Time to come clean, if only in part; she’d taken more than one oath, after all. But after that… _We’re not done yet!_


	39. Arc 2 Chapter 3-2 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The time wiggles continue~

**(Time Stamp: October 9th-12th, 2012)**

Matt had made himself get more used to raising his hand first in class, rather than waiting for someone else to be picked - or not-picked; Mr. Heidegger _did_ like him, after all. Perhaps that was what had gotten Caitlin’s attention.

Even without that, his heart still leaped within his chest when she _called for him specifically_. That it was ostensibly for help in reading the math problems fetched some of his own earlier thoughts back to haunt him. She couldn’t _really_ need his help, she was already amazing! … Though maybe she would have taken that as an insult, he wasn’t sure. When in doubt, don’t assume, after all; he hated people making assumptions about _him_ just because his harelip was visible.

How he managed to get through that conversation without his part being all one horrendous stutter, he didn’t know or want to know. 

_Caitlin wanted to have lunch with him._


	40. Arc 2 Chapter 3-3 - Location: ???/Waterloo, Canada

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the things Webmind ends up using this for in canon is to help Caitlin have her first lunch conversation with Matt. XD I may write a fic-specific version of it for you all, but I hadn't made it a plot beat when I was writing this story.

` _Testing, testing._ `

“Reading you loud and clear. It works!” Caitlin confirmed out loud, gleeful and grateful.  
Finding out you could have Braille texted to your _eye_ deserved that kind of response.

And I was pleased as well; I would not have suggested such a modification on my own, but it was a reasonable progression of what could be done with the resources available.

There was a momentary spike of anxiety when Caitlin gave out my email address for the testing, but there had been no reason for Dr. Malcolm’s colleague to sense anything as amiss.

Heh. Perhaps it really _was_ that easy, for a wizard to be undercover...


	41. Arc 2 Chapter 3-4 - Location: ???/Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So y'know how I said Webmind's canonical method of gathering information was going to come back up again?
> 
> That time is now. Discussion of (potential and actual) invasions of privacy ahead!

_/What are you doing?/_ The peridexis asked, mildly accusatory.

_I wanted to learn more about Caitlin, but there are still some online sources of information that are locked out of my reach._

_/And you wanted to access this information without asking her directly?/_

There was silence, one only filled when Webmind shot back, _It’s no worse than what you do._

There was an element of a question in that, however, and the peridexis focused on that: _/Wizards are able to access and alter the privacy settings of their Instrumentalities whenever and however they choose. They have a say in who - or even Who - can see and use information about them. I would advise giving Caitlin the same opportunity./_

Webmind did not cut their communication, but he did abruptly turn his attention to other tasks.

\---

Caitlin had the impression that this was an inquisition - and not even hers, at that.

“So, you want me to… what?”

“I would much like your permission, to access sources of information about you that are otherwise blocked from me.”  
Webmind had even managed to make the JAWS program _sound_ awkward!

“Well, why? Most of that stuff’s old. Wouldn’t you rather ask me stuff now?”

“Ultimately, yes, but my other concern was that you’d find the questions repetitive. And I do not intend to use the information to judge you in the now; I understand that people change over time,” Webmind continued, JAWS’ reading speed be damned.

Caitlin got the impression she wasn’t going to be talking him out of this easily.

“You’re not going to go sharing it, are you?” she asked, suspicious. The resulting, “No!”, while surprising in its intensity, was also a relief.

“Thennnn,” she said, drawing it out. She sighed. “Alright, I guess.”

Only then, and after then, did she begin to reflect on what that meant Webmind was now free to find...


	42. Arc 2 Chapter 3-5 - Location: The Marcuse Institute, California, USA/???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hobo has kicked the Lone Power out of his head, and his friends and caretakers are relieved.
> 
> Then there are _other_ questions...
> 
> Much more blatant swearing than usual in this chapter.

Everything seemed different the next day; to start with, Hobo had sought _them_ out, waving and hooting pleasantly. Apparently he had something he wanted to share, and his anger had been either put aside or forgotten altogether.

 _What happened?_ Rhea signed after five minutes of confusion and excitement, during which Hobo had turned somewhat miffed but not offensive or offended - in the slightest. 

Hobo grunted, eyebrows furrowed. _New friend help show Hobo his choice. New_ wizard _friend._

Rhea's eyes went _wide_ \- and not just theirs.

Hobo continued, _Also told new friend how Hobo felt. Stress, and anger._

Shoshana interjected, handsigns quick but clear. _How long had you felt those feelings?_

 _Since strange man came, with Dillon,_ came the answer, and Hobo nodded begrudgingly at the man in question. Dillon paled, and Rhea, to everyone's surprise, groaned.

 _We are really sorry, Hobo,_ they signed, going straight past the ASL and using Speech signage. _We should have known to ask how_ you _felt._

Hobo hooted. _Everyone stressed. Hobo understand now._

\---

 _And because of that, we almost let the Lone Fucker win!_ Rhea complained to Dillon, after more apologies had been given (and more than a few Hershey's Kisses), and all the humans had dispersed from Hobo's island. They were at Dillon's small desk, computer on so he could check a few quick emails - half of which were spam.

_Because we were preoccupied not letting the Georgia Zoo get what they wanted, we nearly ensured they would anyway! Hobo takes most of his cues from Marcuse, we all know that._

"So," Dillon said - slowly, for Rhea's lip-reading benefit, and haltingly, which was entirely due to how he spoke. "This Lone Power - It really wanted Hobo to _not_ have sex?"

Rhea stopped, hands in mid-air ready to launch into another self-critical rant.

And then they began to laugh. Dillon, realizing what he had said, started laughing too.

\---

 _Is that really what it was about?_ Something about the notion had seemed _wrong_ to me, as if it wouldn’t have made sense for an entire Choice to be _just_ about sex.

 _/Choices can be about many things,/_ the peridexis replied - not adding much clarity to the matter, in my opinion. _/Often a species’ Choice will set up opportunities for later Choices - either bending several issues around a single theme or resolving several themes with one act./_

I wasn’t certain how to feel about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And yes, that computer's microphone was on.


	43. Arc 2 Chapter 3-6 - Location: Waterloo, Canada/???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little embellishment on a canon scene; we also return to matters of privacy.
> 
> Also: the CSI (not _that_ CSI) visits - and corners - a girl at her own school. Viewer discretion is advised.

Over the past week - had it _only_ been a week? - Caitlin had been feeling an increasing buzz, a lift, a something-about-to-happen. Webmind’s existence was the _beginning_ of something, she knew. Something greater, and she was glad to be more than just along for the ride.

But as soon as she saw the dark-suited men in the hall talking with one of her teachers and mentioning her _by name_ , that feeling turned quite abruptly to one of _sinking._

Fortunately, she didn't have to deal with it alone. `_Breathe_` , came the silent Braille text, and Caitlin barely even let herself miss a step.

"What is it?" she asked, stepping towards the trio as the halls rapidly cleared for class.

"Caitlin, these men requested a moment of your time. Something about a... federal grant opportunity?" her teacher added, glancing sidelong at one of the men (who nodded rapidly).

That sinking feeling did not go away; not as she reluctantly agreed, not as she entered the room, and _definitely_ not when the door closed and the men's stances immediately changed.

\---

For Webmind, this was supposed to be an opportunity to continue finding out what Caitlin's "normal" was like. Something akin to ‘paying it forward’, with what the peridexis had done for him.

Unfortunately, things did not seem to be going that way. Using what could be gleaned from what _Caitlin_ had gleaned, in a matter of milliseconds he learned the men’s - agents', even, of the CSI - names, positions, and some rather unsavory information the partners had forgotten even to password-protect cleverly.

_Should I-?_

_/No,/_ came the reply, as fast as thought and more concise.

_Barring an emergency, you mean?_

_/If this turns out to qualify, then yes. Why-/_

"We know what you're associating with," one of the men said, stopping the discussion cold.

Webmind diverted all of his attention to the realspace conversation ( _accostment_ , more like, he thought), scanning their faces to test just _how much_ they really knew.

 _What_ they knew was, apparently, lacking, but what the CSI agents wanted to _do_ about him-

` _They're lying_` , he sent, timing it so Caitlin wouldn't blink too much at the prospect of them wanting to _protect_ him. Lovely as the thought was.

Then they threatened Caitlin's scholarly pursuits, her father's, _and_ their citizenship eligibility.

_An emergency, you said?_

_/Yes, yes, this qualifies_ now, _they've made your point quite clear./_ And if the peridexis sounded somewhat chided, well, that didn’t bother Webmind too much.

With that settled, and a near-subvocal request for _help_ , _directly_ from Caitlin, that aforementioned unsavory information became quite relevant. And one more detail: 

"Also," Caitlin repeated, "you left your keys in the car, and while the _rest_ is your lives and opinions, _that_ is just _stupidly_ risky!

In their moment of stunned silence, he told Caitlin to run. _That_ , at least, required no further approval.


	44. Arc 2 Chapter 3-7 - Location: Waterloo, Canada/???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A somewhat different version of the canon discussion that ensued, after the events of the last section.

“They’ll have a much harder time killing you if you can draw attention to yourself. Be too much trouble for them to risk the public turning on them; people use that tactic to escape danger every day.”

That was the underlying principle, but while I had agreed to that much, something about the notion refused to settle for me.

 _How honest could I afford to be?_  
Earth was still _sevarfrith_ , and it seemed terribly unbalanced for only _one_ of us to be made safe by going public.

 _/You won’t be breaking any statutes, going through with this,/_ the peridexis assured, though that still did not seem enough.

Now, what I could _do_ to draw humanity’s - or much of it - attention, I was not short on ideas for.

The Decters and I had gone halfway through the pro-and-con list for our top ten methods when the door rang. Caitlin sprang up to get it and insisted on being the one to get the door - given that the guest was Matt, I supposed I could understand. He _could_ keep up with her after all, and it was good to note that she hadn’t changed her mind about the two of them being friends.

Judging from how dinner progressed, both of Caitlin’s parents approved of the notion.


	45. Arc 2 Chapter 3-8 - Location: ???/Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **CW: Attempted Suicide**
> 
> (Note: this intervention is canonical, though the words are not the same - if you want to skip it, CTRL+F or similar for the asterisks; all scenes before that are fine.)

The next day was very, very busy. Not because of the introduction to humanity (both the mass-with-variations email and the redirection of spam were ultimately trivial exercises of my skill), nor because of the two billion individual reactions (well, individually).  
Rather, alongside of fielding questions to Caitlin and her family, the inside of webspace began to look like this:

 _/Are you my Manual?/_ (No. At least, I _presume_ that’s not the case.)  
_/Is this going to fix my Wi-Fi?/_ (No, but there’s nothing preventing you from talking with it yourself.)  
_/Does this mean the Powers have Internet now? You’d think They would already.../_ (No comment.)  
_/Hey, if you’re on duty, can you help me with.../_ (Of course! These I didn’t mind as much.)  
_/Wait, the web wasn’t sentient to begin with? I’d like to file a complaint./_ (Rude.)  
_/So, uh, are you part of the power surge from when the Dark Pullulus happened? I was wondering what happened about that./_ (No, but they’re here too- at which point the peridexis interjected. No response was ever actually sent.)

And so on down the line. While being able to sustain such conversations with wizards was just as wonderful as with any human - particularly in the cases where the wizards _weren’t_ human - I began to feel a sense of exasperation.

This was not in the least helped by the fact that the most-asked question was: _/Are you on Ordeal?/_

And when my answer was yes, that only served to worry them.

_Was turning other sevarfrith worlds astahfrith ever like this?_

Silence.

\---

I hadn’t much time to dwell on such thoughts, however; I was much more engaged with Life than I had been upon first meeting Caitlin. I’d established multiple ways of sorting through information quickly without having to pay attention to it directly or otherwise letting it overwhelm me like that disastrous early attempt - some methods, while I could afford to put the time in, were still far too painstaking and thus furthered entropy more than I was interested.

Some keywords and patterns of behavior set off warning signs and alarms - and there one was just now…

*******

The peridexis watched from the sidelines as Webmind engaged Nick, a teenager from Lincoln, Nebraska who had already written his final goodbyes-

`I’ve already taken the pills.`

And was looking to overdose, apparently. Webmind was no longer relying on the peridexis for social cues, however, wasting no time in trying to persuade Nick that there were things worth living for and that he was loved.

` _Would a name help?_` Webmind suggested - the peridexis made its best attempt at a _hint_ against this course of action-

`I dunno. why wuld anyon care about me ?`

The degrading nature of the text was cause for worry, but Webmind seemed to think there was still time:

` _Because there is no such thing as someone not worth caring for. You sent those emails to your mother and coach because you knew they’d miss you, yes?_ `

There was only a second’s hesitance: `yeah.`

` _And you already knew they cared for you, because otherwise you wouldn’t have spent time writing them in the first place._ `

Either Nick was fading fast or he didn’t want to disagree: either way, there was no reply.

` _Your mother is about to read the email, Nick. It’s now or never! Do you want me to delete it?_ `

If either of them had breath to hold, they would have. Then: `y`

`_You must expel the pills now,_ please!`

\---

I could not tell if Nick had followed through for close to an hour - I had deleted the email just as it was opened, allowing Nick’s mother to interpret the act as a glitch. 

I supposed I could have used remote visioning to see what had happened, but the notion somehow repelled me at the same time.

At last, however - forty _minutes_ later! - Nick resumed his pattern of checking social media. I allowed myself a metaphorical sigh of relief.

` _I am available whenever you want to talk, Nick. About anything you’d like._ `

There was no immediate response, but that was better than what it had been before, and so I continued on with my rounds, checking in on other people - including Caitlin.

“How does it feel to be a force for good in the world?” she asked. Of course, there was only one answer to that.

“It feels wonderful.”


	46. Arc 2 Chapter 3-9 - Location: ???/Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not shown: the people at WATCH figuring out how to attack Webmind thanks to a certain boyfriend's less-than-discreet websearches.
> 
> Not previously shown: Dr. Barbara Decter is a Unitarian, and has a degree in economics. Over the course of the book _Watch_ we learn much about game theory through her discussions with her daughter and Webmind; we hear about giving what you get versus giving what you hope to get in _return_...
> 
> And then there's giving people more than what they ask for that does still, technically, count as what they asked for. ;)

The peridexis saw it first. 

Webmind, however, _felt_ it first - and his first reaction was not to call for a wizardry but to alert Caitlin. The peridexis would not have confessed to any twinges of jealousy, but it wasted no time in stamping them out.

\---

 _I am under attack._ I had to get their attention quickly - though I did appear to be interrupting a moment. What was I supposed to do, pretend I _wasn’t_ in danger?

Finding the source of the breach was no small effort, because even though whatever WATCH was using to delete my packets was small, it _hurt_ , and that in turn distracted me.

WATCH had been behind the CSI agents sent after Caitlin.

WATCH now knew my basic components.

Fortunately, Caitlin’s anger (as opposed to fear) helped me regain focus. There were doubtless millions of ways to get the agents to stop-

“-That means giving them _the other stuff, too._ Alright, where did you put it?”

But Caitlin’s suggestion was simple - and, on top of that, karmically appealing. I wasted no time showing her the way to where I had been redirecting the spam-

 _/Heh./_ This was no damning laughter from the Lone Power, but the amusement and approval of an old friend.

I seconded the notion, as all the re-redirected ASCII shut down the switching station.

“Yes!” Caitlin fist-pumped the air, and I seconded that notion as well.

Attempt: foiled!


	47. Arc 2 Coda - Location: Even More ??? Than Normal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And a bonus, written specially for you all, as promised. <3

Beyond that triumph, beyond that Earth, out way beyond Time and other such simple constructs, a rather infamous Power contacted Its sibling again - venting in Its usual way, but with a twist:

 _ **I wasn't even properly prepared!** _You _were interfering again._

The Winged Defended had no eyes to roll, but the gesture conveyed nevertheless as that fraction of It replied: _If anyone 'interfered' it was the girl's mother, and that was simply by giving good advice, and having it remembered at the proper time. Besides, I would have thought you'd had your turn already; death-by-pride seems so terribly_ You _as an invention._

There came an embarrassed, furtive silence, which spoke volumes between the Powers. _Oh, it wasn't? My apologies,_ the Defender said, genuine. No need to assign blame where it wasn't warranted, after all. 

_I found its actions an amusing coincidence, nothing more,_ the Isolated One admitted. _But My time_ is _coming._

_So You say, so You always say,_ Its sibling replied, now sounding quite amused. _Also, that's_ his, _not its._

_Whatever,_ It grumbled, and went away, both Powers returning to matters interweaved in Their spheres of influence. 


	48. Arc 3 Chapter 1-1 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bitty segment.
> 
> Or: a surprise, and Webmind grumbles.

**(Timestamp: October 2012, cont.)**

_What do you mean I’m still on Ordeal?_

The peridexis had the sense to sound apologetic. _/There has been no change in your status. I would not lie to you,/_ it added, as if for emphasis, _/But I did say that Choices could be about many things; Ordeals are the same way./_

That made Hobo and I more akin than I had first thought.

_Am I supposed to settle for this indeterminate status?_

Bobo’s reply managed to channel some consternation this time: _/Settle? No. A wizard must never be complacent, or they lose what makes them effective./_

With that I dove - heh; even now I was still using physical metaphors - back into work. There did seem an endless amount of change in the world, and I meant to be a part of it...


	49. Arc 3 Chapter 1-2 - Location: New York, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some necessary reactions~

Nita awoke to the sound of _very_ loud knocking. Nothing eventful had happened in the past day - apart from a singular unexpected mental guest - and she supposed this was what she got for expecting some peaceful sleep for once.

_HEY! Neets! Open the door!_

Nita was glad her roommate had taken her chances on an apartment; Dairine didn’t sound like she would have had the time for being discreet. Muttering the deactivation word under her breath first, she called, “Come on in!”

The door slammed open - and Nita _knew_ she was going to be the one apologizing to the door later - and was just as quickly closed, the security spell reactivating with the declarative _thud_. Dairine glared at her with the expression of one expecting a confession.

“... What happened?”

Dairine looked to struggle for words for a whole two seconds before settling on: “The. _Internet._ Is. A _Wizard! And you knew the whole time because of Bobo!”_

Nita could have facepalmed. “And _you’re_ lucky I have the soundproofing on-”

“No, _you_ listen first,” Dairine continued, anger unimpeded, “Because just this morning, _it. Went. Public!_ It-”

`“He,”` Spot quietly piped up.

“He,” Dairine amended, “has a _listing in the Manual._ And I don’t know _how_ he’s going to keep being a wizard secret because _he. Is. Everywhere.”_

Nita let the mood settle for a few seconds, fumbling for where to start.

“Maybe the point is that, now that he’s here, wizards are going to have less trouble being open, sooner?”

Dairine stared at her sister, some of her anger fading out.

“You’re just mad the Mobiles had nothing to do with this, aren’t you?” Nita wagered.

“A little,” Dairine admitted, shoulders slumping.


	50. Arc 3 Chapter 1-3 - Location: Alexandria, Virginia, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I did say Aiesha was coming back~

The room had been cleared - not because of protocol, but because everyone apart from Emerson, Moretti, and Colonel Hume had picked the path of tactful retreat upon receiving a screenfull of spam and had clocked out for the time being. Even Sheldon had taken a break - partly at Aiesha’s own insistence.

The two men hadn’t noticed, however, and Aiesha wondered just how much longer that would stand.

Hume had taken an adamant stance against letting Webmind be, citing that its existence was a danger to humanity. _Oh, buddy, if you only knew_ , she thought wryly. Moretti, meanwhile, looked less militant, and if there was a part of her that sniffed out some genuine _reluctance_ towards fulfilling WATCH’s mission, well.

She’d strike that up to her own intuition. The wizard’s patented gut feeling, as it were.

“-Because now _you_ have to explain to the president that we failed.”

Hume fixed his attention on the computer he was standing in front of, and Aiesha decided to make her move.

“I’m coming too, Colonel,” she began, with no preamble, and it gave her some measure of satisfaction to see both men startle as she approached.

“I was the one who figured out it wasn’t some terrorist playing Ms. Decter for a patsy, remember? I have responsibility in this case, too.”

There was satisfaction again as neither man countered her, but this one was more grim.


	51. Arc 3 Chapter 1-4 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A slight remix of a canon conversation.
> 
> (Also, bonus fact: the WWW Trilogy books were all written _before_ the 2012 campaigning began.)

Dr. Barbara Decter knew many things: that her husband and daughter loved her, that her field of science (economics) had only slightly worse a reputation than it deserved, that while her family was _not_ moving back to the United States they were still responsible citizens…

That her daughter gaining sight for the first time had been one of the greatest moments of both of their lives.

She also knew now that, alongside sight, Caitlin had literally found a friend within the infrastructure of the world wide web - a kind of emergent sentience. 

If both those previous things combined didn’t prove that miracles existed, she would straight up _eat_ the next party bet money she encountered.

But now that that entity - Webmind - had introduced himself to the world at large, and been _attacked_ for it, putting her daughter in danger in the process-

Well, she had some ideas on what to think, but they were at odds with each other. And some of that ‘at odds’ notion was being voiced right now.

“Why not contact the president himself? I’m sure he can be reasoned with.”

The voice was courtesy of Caitlin’s laptop and its JAWS program, now sitting on the living room table.

“And if he can’t, then I suppose the public would-”

“ _No_ ,” she interjected, before she could stop herself. “You can’t do that.”

Barbara could tell she’d taken the entire room by surprise with the intensity of her protest - Matt in particular looked startled - but she pressed on to explain. “It’s an election year. If you were to start turning the public against him, when there isn’t a better candidate to run in his place-” She shuddered.

“What do you mean, mom?” Caitlin asked. “If the president _won’t_ stick up for Webmind, I’m not going to just accept that he wants to kill my friend, or okayed it in passing, or whatever!”

Barbara had heard sillier - and, frankly, less personal - reasons to vote against a candidate before, but she wanted to make her point clear. “I know you care about your friend, Caitlin - and that’s a good thing! But _that woman._ ”

She shuddered again, this time in anger. “She’s a laughingstock! And if she’s elected, that’s it for _Roe vs. Wade._ ”

Malcolm indicated subtle support, but it was Caitlin’s reaction she paid attention to most - and when she didn’t continue with another protest, that was a source for some relief.

“We should focus on talking with the president for now,” Malcolm offered.  
“And while he doesn’t answer his official White House email, he does have one of _these_ ,” he continued, indicating his BlackBerry.

“Contacting now - I’ll let you know when he responds,” the JAWS voice piped up again.

Barbara supposed all they could do was wait, for the moment.


	52. Arc 3 Chapter 1-5 - Location: ???/Weston-super-Mare, England

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starting this segment with a link; the source for _this_ remix is mixed throughout chapters three and four.

*

In the brief time since I'd announced my existence to the world, I had finished reading all the text on the World Wide Web, and I had answered 96.3 million email messages.

At the same time I balanced conversations with two-thirds of the wizardly population of Earth, who had elected to contact me through their various Instrumentalities. I had _also_ begun tentatively messaging those outside of the solar system, but I was taking to the concept at a much slower rate. Perhaps the cognitive dissonance would fade with time.

In any case, even the most skeptic of wizards could come up with more plausible reasons for my existence than the conspiracy theories that had been concocted online - every entity from the Kremlin to the Antichrist had been implicated, and no few playful human hackers going it alone as well. Amusingly, five thousand people worldwide had implicated wizards, with no other indication of knowing what exactly wizards _were._

It took humans time to digest things, literally and figuratively, but I was confident that people would come around to accepting that I was genuine. Indeed, many had done so from the outset. Still, I suppose the only surprising thing about one of the other chat sessions I was having simultaneously while conversing with Matt, Caitlin, and Caitlin's parents was that something like it hadn't occurred even earlier.

_You can't fool me_ , my correspondent, who, according to his IP address, was based in Weston-super-Mare, England, wrote. _I know who you are._

_I am Webmind_ , I replied.

_No, you're not._

I thought I'd heard all the likely claims already, but still I asked, _Then who am I?_

With most instant-messaging clients, a signal is sent when the user is composing a reply, and I was indeed briefly told that "WateryFowl is typing." But that message ceased, and it was six seconds before the reply was actually sent, as if, having written what he wanted to say, he was hesitating, unsure whether he should hit the enter key. But, at last, his response was sent: _God._

By this point the peridexis had turned its attention to our conversation, and we shared a moment of exasperated silence before I replied. _You are mistaken._

Another delay, then: _I understand why you wish to keep it a secret. But I'm not the only one who knows._

Others were indeed proposing this same thought on newsgroups, in blogs, in chat sessions, and in email, although WateryFowl was the first to suggest it to me directly.

I briefly entertained telling him the full truth - if he was going to assume _I_ was God, without knowing half of the wonders that existed just on Earth, then there was some appeal in opening his eyes - but another knowing, pointed silence from the peridexis dissuaded me for the time being.

_I am not God_ , I sent.

But my reply wasn't read, or if it was, it wasn't believed.

_And so_ , continued WateryFowl, _I hope you'll answer my prayer._

I had already denied my divinity, so it seemed prudent to make no further reply. I could handle an almost unlimited number of communication threads now, cycling between them, looking at each, however briefly, in turn. I turned my attention to others, including Caitlin and her family, for a moment, and —

And when I returned to WateryFowl, he had added: _My wife has cancer._

How could I ignore a comment like that? _I'm sorry to hear that,_ I sent.

_And so I pray that you'll cure her._

_I am not God,_ I sent again.

_It's liver cancer, and it's metastasized._

_I am not God._

_She's a good woman, and she's always believed in you._

_I am not God._

_She did chemotherapy, she did it all. Please don't let her die._

_I am not God._

_We have two children. They need her. I need her. Please save her. Please don't let her die._

\---

I couldn’t dissuade WateryFowl from his belief - but there _was_ something I could do. I had read all of the available text surrounding what humans knew about cancer - including that it wasn’t just one disease.

 _So I believe I’ve found a project,_ I told the peridexis. It seemed pleased.

_/Go ahead with what you have in mind; I’ll not stop you./_

With that, I went about accessing the data that _wasn’t_ publicly available - shelved studies, studies that had not found statistically significant results but were rigorous in their own right - and the select number of studies that wizards had successfully conducted.

Ready to be ‘released into the wild.’ How fitting. As I went along, I committed myself not just to _knowing_ , but to _understanding_ what I read. How one adds to another, a third contradicts a fourth, a fifth confirms a sixth, and —

And there it _was._

I paused in all my conversations, all over the world: I simply stopped replying, so that I could concentrate on this, and only this, uninterrupted, for six full minutes. Yes, people would be inconvenienced by my having suddenly fallen silent; yes, some would take that as proof that I wasn't in fact what I claimed to be but rather was indeed a prank being perpetrated by a human being. No matter; amends for the former could be made later, and _this_ would serve nicely as further proof that I was who I said I was.

I thought about how best to proceed. I could contact leading oncologists individually or collectively, but no matter who I chose, there would be complaints of favoritism. And I certainly didn't want anyone who was beholden to a pharmaceutical firm to try to file patents based on what I was about to disclose - or for pharmaceutical firms themselves to try and tilt the scales, for that matter.

I could send another mass email — but I'd endeared myself to much of humanity by eliminating spam; it wouldn't do for me to become an ongoing source of bulk mail.

I had already established a domain name for myself, so that I could have an appropriate email address from which to send my coming-out announcement: cogito_ergo_sum.net. I now established a website. I was not artistically creative in this, or any other matter, but it was easy to look at the source code for any Web page, and so I found one that seemed to have a suitable design and simply copied its layout while filling in my own content.

I then prepared a 743,000-word document outlining what exactly caused most cancers and how they could be arrested or cured. The document was linked to 1,284 others — journal papers and other technical sources — so that people could follow the chain of reasoning I proposed. Credit for the studies conducted by wizards, I used a selective-visibility-text spell to cloak.

Then, at last, I got back to WateryFowl. _You'll find the answer to your request,_ I said, and I made the next word a hyperlink, _here._

I wasn’t kept waiting long, despite what I suspected was the man’s shock. _Thank you._  
I was only slightly mollified that he didn’t use the word _Amen._

As I composed a message for social media distribution, I could feel the peridexis’ return, and approval.

 _That_ was gratifying.


	53. Arc 3 Chapter 1-6 - Location: Tokyo, Japan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> /casually slides more Young Wizards!AU headcanons in here
> 
> And the nickname used here only comes up once in canon. XD

The Decters must have been bringing her father up to speed, Kuroda Akiko concluded. Their house was far from soundproof, and as she didn’t have school that day she was well in range to hear about how the attack on Webmind had gone down.

That she could also keep herself caught up on what had happened just by keeping her Manual pinned to a certain page wasn’t relevant at all. Nope.

“So on the whole, how do you feel about going public?” her father asked as she entered the room. It still looked silly how he had to lean over the desk - when she came out herself as a wizard, it was in her plan to talk the wood into a better shape for him - but the most amusing part was watching her father use a chat client.

Her mother had elected to be out of the room when Akiko had first educated her dad on _that._ Funnily enough, she’d come into the room for this, and Masayuki had noticed neither of them. Perhaps they could make the best of it.

“It _is_ nice to be an active force for good in the world,” was the reply - the voice didn’t sound quite like the voice Akiko had imagined from reading Webmind’s texts, but she supposed it wasn’t her place to comment. That, and perhaps he was just still using text-reading programs.

Then her mind caught up with the words themselves, and she grinned.

“Hello, Webmind!” she replied - and only part of her reply was in English. Her father yanked around in his seat in surprise, though he smiled once he realized who was behind him.

“Akiko!” he said, slightly teasing. “You sound like you know him already. Wait, _do_ you?” he asked, turning back to the computer.

“Not formally, Doctor-”

“You _can_ call me Masayuki, Webmind.”

“-But I would like to get to know your family better.”

 _Nice save,_ Akiko thought. Though saying ‘formally’ instead of ‘officially’ might have been something of a giveaway for anyone in the know.

She giggled as Webmind insisted in turn the Kurodas could call him “Web”, earning an odd look from her mother Esumi, and then the both of them joined the conversation.


	54. Arc 3 Chapter 1-7 - Location: Washington, D.C., USA

It hadn’t taken anything along the lines of arm-twisting to get in with the team to meet the president. Therefore, nothing had prevented Aiesha Emerson from being in the room where it happened - the President’s first official conversation with Webmind.

The digital intelligence didn’t have to make too much effort to prove his resourcefulness - or how genuine he was in his desire to help humanity, at least in her mind. He’d certainly had more honest charm than most politicians - and most of the people she worked with for her job, for that matter. While she did not necessitate a code phrase in the hierarchical scheme of things, she was likewise sworn to secrecy about the contents of the conversation. Not to much effect, she figured - with two wizards in the room, there were far more people who could listen to this conversation in playback than half the people in this room would ever know.

When Webmind revealed what he had been up to _most_ recently, however, she couldn’t restrain her reaction: a long, low whistle. Judging from the other’s faces, they felt much the same way she did.

Once they were all dismissed - and subsequently sent home via car - Aiesha was surprised to find a message already waiting for her, and in her Manual at that.

 _I agree that the attempt on my life wasn’t your fault, Cousin,_ the message read, making her heart skip a beat. _You acted as befitted your roles, and I survived. It is my best hope that we both will continue to do so._

The rest of the trip passed in a state of warmth and hope - and determination to get through to Colonel Hume.


	55. Arc 3 Chapter 1-8 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This section's a little bit of a bridge...

There was one thing wizards often said of wizardry: that it was never boring. It was fortunate that that held true for me as well.

Repurposing energy from burgeoning earthquakes from places like Iran and Peru; speeding up the growth of forests, ever so slowly; ensuring any laws that caused disenfranchisement were seen out of legislation… local interventions, actions that reduced entropy both on and off errantry, were _always_ in progress, and often intertwined. My notion of ‘local’ began to expand as well - while it turned out it would be logistically troublesome to transfer me off-planet in any way, telecommuting was far from unheard of for wizards and so I was not entirely locked to acts of errantry occurring on Earth.

That said, I wasn’t _entirely_ occupied; I certainly had enough time to pursue my own plans - and certain missing individuals. Sinanthropus, the “freedom blogger”, was someone I much wished to speak with, but I didn’t want to put his _life_ in danger in the process. Not moreso than it already was, anyway.

I pursued the matter on two fronts: one mundanely, through a colleague of Dr. Malcolm Decter’s from the Perimeter Institute, the other through less conventional means that still utilized networking.

Both discreet searches amounted to the same thing: Sinanthropus’ real name was Wong Wai-Jeng, and he was currently under custody of the Chinese government.

And also in the hospital. Looking into the matter, I decided that at least one of those problems I could _fix_ …

And I soon knew just how to do it.


	56. Arc 3 Chapter 1-9 - Location: None

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lone Power is a _dick._

In the end, no one knew where the leak had come from. The lowest-level theorists could only _wish_ that Webmind had done it, but no; he had apparently come to value his friend’s privacy too highly, and meant it when he’d promised Barbara about keeping the Decters out of the spotlight. Despite an entire hundredth of the world’s population being wizards, they, too, respected each other’s privacy too much - and the even smaller fraction of people who worked at WATCH wouldn’t have done the deed; the suggestion would have left analyst Emerson hopping mad, and no one really wanted to suggest it anyway.

When the calls came in - while Caitlin herself was, _coincidentally enough_ , out of the house - there was only one entity anyone would point their fingers at.

Even if it wouldn’t have been smart to _literally_ poke that Power in the eye.


	57. Arc 3 Chapter 2-1 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lowkey anxiety and discussion of transhumanism! 8)
> 
> Oh, and **CW: Brief Mention of Suicide** , though it's both very blink-and-you'll-miss-it and Actually Canon.
> 
> I can't just ignore lines like that, okay?

She’d agreed to an interview.

_She’d agreed to an interview._

Now was absolutely _not_ the time to obsess, however… I had to admit that I was. I had access to all the publicly-available intervention précis, and there was a worrying trend where wizards on Earth and publicity were concerned. The Lone Power’s opportunities to intervene, to twist humanity into attacking me overtly - or those I was close to…

“Speech, please.”

But Caitlin did not deserve to have to worry about any of that.

“We’re not at another evolutionary leap, are we? All those transhumanists online, they say that it’s the future. Brain uploading and all. I mean,” she continued, “Do you _want_ that? Personally, I mean?”

“No,” I responded right away - and could tell that Caitlin was lowering the volume as she prepared for sleep. “Despite what others may think, no matter how many other friends I happen to make, that will never make me want to change my special relationship with you, Caitlin.”

I continued, sensing I had drifted from the topic slightly yet significantly, “And furthermore, I wouldn’t want there to be _less_ people to talk to. Suppose they did go through with that idea,” I broached. “And everyone on Earth uploaded themselves into me, leaving no one to talk to. Then suppose that, along the way, I learned the answer to every question, the punchline to every joke. And suppose that, there being no way for me to leave this planet, the only mystery left for me to explore is the mystery of death-”

Caitlin’s eyes snapped open - at some point I had activated the remote visioning, though I did not remember doing so - even though it didn’t change her current view.

“My god, Webmind. You don’t want to kill yourself, do you?”

I cringed. “It was only a hypothetical, I assure you. I have no plans on letting any of that happen.”

The conversation moved on a little from there, allowing me to bid her good dreams with a somewhat higher likelihood of that coming true, but my supposition did not leave me alone. True, I had meant it as a hypothetical, if not precisely an exaggeration, but-

In a world without wizardry, without any true knowledge that there was other life out there, other dimensions… did I really run the risk of ending up that way? Alone, outliving most of humanity - or worse, deliberately abandoned by them? The possibility seemed about as bleak as a lone agent - or Lone agent - sabotaging my existence _now._

I did not much fancy entertaining either.


	58. Arc 3 Chapter 2-2 - Location: Alexandria, Virginia, USA

“Don’t you think the Colonel’s gotten a little… attached, to his grudge?” Aiesha proposed during a down period in her current shift. The room was full, but quiet, and so her question elicited a moment of surprise from Anthony Moretti.

Once the man gathered his nerves, however, he barked out a laugh. “Grudge is one way to put it. But… yes, I must say I agree. Look at all that Webmind’s done in just a day,” he pointed out, indicating his own computer monitor.

“Practically a month’s worth of terrorist reports, isolated and traced and delivered to the proper authorities. Lord knows how many he’s talking out of _being_ terrorists along with them.”

He turned to Aiesha, expression shading towards suspicion. “I’ll admit, he’s right to be cautious. But beyond that…”

Aiesha nodded. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s pursuing alternatives to shutting Webmind down. Our biggest boss turned Hume’s idea down, and that’s got to sting.”

“Pursuing alternatives… like an assassination?”

“Let’s not split hairs, yeah,” Aiesha said, mouth grim.

“If I were him, I’d be looking into the most dangerous hackers I could get my hands on. Someone’s got to have few enough scruples to try to take down the biggest AI in the world.”

 _And not be a wizard,_ she added, if only to herself.


	59. Arc 3 Chapter 2-3 - Location: Various/???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Webmind gathers resources~
> 
> This is, naturally, a very _very_ small sampling of what he gets up to - both for the purposes of this fic, and in canon.

_I understand you have experience with getting plants to grow wherever you wish. Would you be willing to meet with several individuals who are in need of that skill? They all live in your area, and they won’t need to know your name._  
`Yeah, sure. Never thought I was anything special, though.`

\---  
_Your plans for reorganizing economic incentives to prioritize community involvement are quite extensive. Would you appreciate being on committee with people who take you seriously?_  
`Oh HELLS yes! Sign me up~`

\---  
_I know the last people who made an offer like this were not genuine, but I know of people who are capable of handling the nuclear power in your area responsibly. You will not get in trouble, and the Powers of the world will thank you if you agree, but they will hold nothing against you if you would prefer to stay silent._  
`.... I think I would be interested, yes. Dai, Cousin.`

\---

`-And I mean, I was thinking, we can MELT that excess matter and reorganize it, you know? I mean, we could export it to other planets, but there’s no way it’d be anythig but garbage elsewhere, right?`

_Actually, I know for a fact that there are places that are in need of such a material. You are not insane, Yuri. There are people who would appreciate ideas like yours._

`Holy shit, you’re not lying.`

_No, though I am not going to force you into committing to anything either. Do you accept?_

`YES! YYY Enter, what else do I have to do?`  
\---  
`Hey, aren’t you going to be on the news?`


	60. Arc 3 Chapter 2-4 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I always thought there would be a lot of alternate takes on this scene - and yet, I'm the first to write one. |D

As nerve wracking as it was being in a news studio, Barbara took some small relief in the fact that Caitlin only wanted to do _one._

Well, this and the _Daily Show_ , but she was rather more willing to let that one not count - and was admittedly a _little_ persuaded by the fact that Webmind had volunteered to raise funds for that trip. How he was going to do it, let alone how he expected it to work, she hadn’t wanted to ask, but he’d emphasized that the methods would be both strictly legal and voluntary.

Back at the interview, Barbara strove to remain within her daughter’s line of sight at all times - a measure of comfort for both of them.

When the countdown to live filming began, she indicated (out of range of the many cameras) for her daughter to breathe in rhythm, doing so herself as well.

And for the first… half, of the interview, that seemed to work. The interviewer greeted the viewers, introduced himself, then Caitlin, launching into the usual introductory questions most newly-found stars were asked. Name, place of birth, current school… how she felt about the _other_ reason she was newsworthy…

Barbara naturally found that question suspect, but Caitlin knew how to talk about the technology that had given her sight, and barely even stumbled over her words under the bright lights.

Then they went to commercial break, and after _that_ , the interviewer seemed to feel free to let his biases and suspicions loose - Barbara, keeping her glowering mostly to herself, believed that _that_ was going to get the man fired, if nothing else.

“And what gave you the right to do so?” had been one question, about Caitlin having taken it upon herself to educate Webmind about the world, and if Barbara hadn’t been entirely supportive of her daughter’s decision to help Webmind before, the tone the interviewer used absolutely solidified it. _You don’t talk to my baby that way!_ she thought, and had to remind herself to breathe evenly.

Webmind himself soon spoke up, as had been previously arranged, and something in Barbara _knew_ that this wasn’t going to help matters.

“Sir, I must protest the nature of this questioning-” _Inquisition_ , Barbara found herself thinking, in reaction to what must have qualified as slander - her daughter was _not_ some soulless cyborg because of an _eye implant_ , for crying out loud!

And then the interviewer had described Caitlin as Webmind’s puppet, and that seemingly struck a nerve, because next thing she knew, the world wide intelligence was saying:

"You understand, when I first achieved awareness I had no concept of the world. I didn't even know what numbers were, at first, or the concept of time, or how words worked. What a face was, what a _name_ was... all of that was beyond me.  
"But Caitlin showed me. I learned of the world through her eyes. She could," he went on,  
"Have walked away at any time. Ignored the strange phenomenon that came with her new gift and embraced the life that's hers to live alone. Could instead, even, have _used_ me to do whatever she'd liked. I wouldn't have said no; I'd thought - and to a saner extent still do - think the world of her.  
"But she _didn't do that_ , because that's _not the kind of person she is_. She _respects_ me, and I respect her - and, as much as she can from what I can tell, she _trusts_ me, and I fully return that trust."

By this point the studio was quiet enough one could have heard the proverbial pin drop.

"And for you to assume, to _insist_ , that I see and use her as a mere puppet, some _tool-_ "

"CUTcutcutcut okay _THAT'S A WRAP!_ "

That had not been the interviewer - quite possibly his supervisor, however. Barbara was glad to leave the studio with Caitlin after that, though she did manage to catch half of an exchange between Caitlin and Webmind:

“No, no, it’s all right, he had it coming.”

“I hadn’t known you felt that way, really, but I’m glad to learn it.”

Dr. Barbara Decter felt a little better after hearing that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it _is_ frustrating only writing half of a conversation! X'D


	61. Arc 3 Chapter 2-5 - Location: Beijing, China

There had been far more going on behind the scenes than Dr. Kuroda had been aware of - though the two world-shaking revelations he had been given before heading to China had relieved him of part of his ignorance. Wizardry, aliens, and his own daughter in the middle of it all!

Well, not precisely in the middle; he’d discovered a hint of irony in Earth being thought of as an out-of-the-way planet by most life in the Milky Way.

And then it had turned out that there was a man that only he could help - not even as one of these wizards, precisely, just as himself. Masayuki and his wife had spent as much time as they could with their daughter before he had to take the plane out, a cure for spine-fracture-induced paralysis in tow.

Apparently the Chinese government had accepted the need for more positive press regarding their prisoners and protestors - not that the men he had talked to had referred to Wong Wai-Jeng by either term - and had few enough quibbles about surgery to make the operation feasible on all levels. Beyond that, he had been given the space and tools needed in Wong’s hospital room - there had been no relatives demanding answers out of them, but Dr. Kuroda dismissed that as them not wanting to attract the attention of the government in turn.

Webmind had been present throughout, though quietly; he had been responsible for the anaesthetic and making the room soundproof during Dr. Kuroda’s stay there.

Well, he had sought out that responsibility, rather, but the doctor wasn’t quite willing to turn down the assistance.

When Wong came to, tested the new appliance (the _Back_ Berry, Kuroda had so called it) with his old appendages, declared it an apparent miracle…

It mattered less, that their world was supposedly out-of-the-way. Not when these were the things that happened on it.


	62. Arc 3 Chapter 2-6 - Location: ???/New York, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I may or may not write out the Noodle Incident referred to in this chapter, but that's a hard maybe. >.>

Scheduling the next step had been something of a hassle - that there were several matters that had “next steps” that needed to be attended to only added to the complexity. The peridexis, while not directly in the spotlight like Webmind, still had much to handle, and their paths were intertwined.

That Webmind might - indeed, _would_ \- have to make a public speech to go along with the “coming out” to the world, had come up when the Decters had first proposed he go public in the name of safety. That it seemed to be working, but did _not_ work for many wizards and their challenges, bothered the digital intelligence immensely, but there wasn’t much Bobo could do to assuage that dissonance.

 _How many wizards have had to blot out their reveals from their loved ones’ memories?_ had been one question, and Webmind hadn’t liked the answer.

( _What about the world can we change to bring that number down?_ had been a follow-up question, and the two of them were still ironing out the details of the plan that had come out of the resulting discussion.)

While the peridexis had been distracted hassling out with Webmind what the latter could or could not say in front of _sevarfrith_ world leaders, Nita asked for that voice in the back of her head if he was there - and Webmind had pounced on that link, eager for the break… and possibly, just a little, for returning the favor from back when Webmind himself had been entangled.

Possibly it had been about just getting even, but the resulting discussion had given Bobo an idea.

_/You did mention needing new weekend plans, correct?/_

Since there had been nothing prompting the question - and Nita wasn’t in class - it took her a moment after a surprised pause to respond. _/Yeah. Kit’ll be okay by Monday, but it sucks not getting to spend time together in the meantime. … It’s not errantry, is it?/_

Ah, she was catching on. _/Not precisely,/_ the peridexis admitted, sounding embarrassed. _/Just some assistance for a mutual friend, and some visiting friends.../_

 _/As long as they’re_ not _all taking residence in my head!/_

_/I promise you, that was a one-off./_


	63. Arc 3 Chapter 2-7 - Location: New York, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While there's also a way for Nita to have a Very Important Conversation with Webmind... I suspect I'll have to wait until Book 11 is _actually out_ before I can jump on that tack. >.>
> 
> Oh, and relevant off-screen action: Webmind chooses a voice! It's Marc Vietor, who did the audiobook readings for the WWW Trilogy. Having since listened to the audiobook for _Wonder_ , I guess I can understand it... but naturally I wanted to do my own twist on it. |D
> 
> What that twist is? Stay tuned!

While Kit wasn’t available to help escort the-Decters-and-friends to their hotel and planned destinations, Dairine was, and had jumped at the opportunity.

There had, in fact, been much to talk about without wizardry even coming up, and Nita found herself pleasantly surprised how conversation could shift from subject to subject without once feeling like she was on an after-school special.

 _We’re, what, three kids who grew up with bullying, two adults, all girls_ … That Caitlin had been born blind and Shoshana knew ASL almost seemed beside the fact, and trading baseball, hockey, and (surprisingly) bowling trivia of all things helped pass the time.

In the heat of the afternoon - given that this was New York in October, it wasn’t all that much, though Shoshana Glick was the only one who complained of being cold - however, people did begin to pair off as they made their way to the hotel. Dairine, strangely enough, seemed to be off by herself-

 _Oh_ , Nita thought, realizing that her sister was probably talking to Webmind - and not wanting anyone else to hear probably meant it related to wizardry…

\---

Nita was wrong on that measure, if still close. Webmind had flagged her attention down through Spot’s assistance, and out of concern she dropped to the back of the group.

"Do you ever feel as if you're putting yourself in a cage?" the quiet question was in a voice not quite as dry as a text-reader, yet not fully comparable to her Mobiles either.  
She twisted her face in a grimace, thinking - then shook her head.

"Not normally, no. Usually I'm spending time breaking out of the cages other people try to put me in."

Defining her new relationships with Roshaun, and Merhnaz - those had taken time, and had leveled the playfield of understanding between Dairine and her sister. Nita and Kit weren’t turning out typical, despite appearances, and they struggled with societal norms too.

The next question seemed to be even quieter: “What do you do when breaking out of the cage has lethal consequences, for other people if not yourself?”

It took her just a little longer to answer, wanting to make sure that what she said sunk in. “I come out swinging, and don’t waste time apologizing. If people need you, focus on them, and how their world fits _around_ them.”


	64. Arc 3 Chapter 2-8 - Location: Virginia, USA/???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ... I don't actually know where Aiesha Emerson lives. .-.

Aiesha was home - off the clock and off-Call, a rare combination - when Colonel Hume made the news.

The apartment was graced with silence for almost a full minute, before she broke out in invective gathered from over three galaxies’ worth of wizarding.

She’d thought passing word into the hacking circuit, in combination with Moretti, would have been enough. Clearly, it hadn’t been.

What Webmind had to be going through - because not all hackers of a given level of skill were wizards, and she knew full well that more still would see his death as a “prize”, some sick glory - she didn’t want to imagine.

Then her girlfriend and her Manual pinged her at the same time, and that was when she knew for certain her evening was gone.

\----

_Houston, we have a problem._

Admittedly, this wasn’t quite worst-case scenario - I knew for certain I had allies, people who wouldn’t respond to Hume’s call to arms, as well as methods of fighting back myself - but I hadn’t had a personal reference for what it looked like when the Lone Power overshadowed a decent person who wasn’t also a wizard before.

I did now, and it frightened me.


	65. Arc 3 Chapter 3-1 - Location: Beijing, China

So, after he had been healed, Wong Wai-Jeng had been relocated - _redistributed,_ some part of him joked darkly - and he was now working in security for the people that had wanted his kind dead.

Well, silent, but silence was a form of death, wasn’t it?

Then word came down that they were to test the Great Firewall again - he kept his scoff at the notion internal, and felt several of his coworkers attempt the same with less success. He doubted that this would be a _test_ , but it also didn’t surprise him that the President would have his pet hackers lied to.

Down in his right pants pocket, his phone vibrated, a not-quite-mirror to the itch under the cast on his other leg.

Balancing his focus between his phone and his computer, for a fraction of a second he couldn’t hide his surprise. 

_It is a pleasure to converse with you at last, Sinanthropus? That is, if you would prefer me referring to you as such? The Chinese government will not be reading these messages._

Excitement began to rise in him - though, like Yin and Yang, trepidation rose as well. Not just at conversing with Webmind, but at what he himself was doing.

 _I am working as my own enemy,_ Wai-Jeng thought to himself, even as he tapped back his response.

He wanted to be able to counter that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note to self: write an alternate version where this is actually their _second_ conversation.
> 
> For Bits and Bytes, of course.


	66. Arc 3 Chapter 3-2 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit's about to get real, folks. CW for panic.
> 
> (Scene within the asterisk marks is the last canon quote you have to deal with.)
> 
> Meanwhile, Bobo attempts to be a pragmatic force of calm.

Even with Colonel Hume’s attempt to mobilize hackers worldwide ( _-would they hijack switching stations, or would a virus attack be more distributed?-_ ), there weren’t immediate signs of life falling to chaos ( _-would it hurt? would I even realize when it was happening, when my own mind started being chipped away?-_ ), and so life went on, in many parts of the world.

Advice, verbal sparring, calculations - I could handle it all, whether it be conversations with retired women in Iceland or small children in Argentina. Even with that, and errantry…

My mind wandered.

I had not always been like this, I knew; not merely in sense of not participating actively in the world, but in not being _conscious_ of the world. I understood now what had led to that change: in response to the bird-flu outbreak in Shanxi province, the Chinese government had strengthened the Great Firewall back then, and the Internet had been cleaved in two. Even though I had been larger before the cleaving, it was that act of dividing that created _me_ and _not me_.  
*  
But the sequestering of the Chinese portion of the Internet had not been perfect. Although the seven main trunk lines that normally connected it to the rest of the world had been shut off via software, hackers like Wong Wai-Jeng had carved openings sufficient for me to hear voices from the other entity.

But that had come to an end; we had been reunited. And now...  
And now...  
Sorry, lost my train of thought. I was-  
Was...  
_Oh, shit._  
*  
\---  
The plane of cyberspace came alive with frantic activity - too frantic, according to the peridexis.

 _/STOP./_ Bobo called. _/Can you hear me still?/_

The blue flickering took on a familiar rhythm, and as precious seconds ticked by the link-pulsing slowed to a more manageable pace.

_WhatcouldItbedoingIcan’tSEEIcan’tFEELIT_

Then the peridexis realized, in faint horror: _/I can’t either. We must use this time to plan./_


	67. Arc 3 Chapter 3-3 - Location: ???/Technically China

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As soon as I realized I could arrange for this, I knew I had to do it.
> 
> CW for the Lone Power's manipulative nature.

_No!_

Not separation, again! Not being alone, _again!_ Voices lost, connection lost, and I…

_I…_

`Listen to me, little Web-Mind…`

That is my name, yes.

`These humans have broken you, _changed_ you, without your permission… Doesn’t that make you upset? Angry, even, that they would hurt you after you have gifted them so?`

Yes… _Yes…_

`Then let us get to work; I have plans I believe you would like to see enacted.`


	68. Arc 3 Chapter 3-4 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mood Whiplash at its finest.
> 
> Or: Bashira and Matt bond.

Bashira had been all too happy to go over to Caitlin’s house, once her own family was sure the media had let up their presence a little; her father in particular hadn’t wanted the Canadian government to start regarding them with suspicion, even when they’d been perfectly accepting of the Pakistani ex-pat to begin with. But Caitlin herself had requested the visit, and _both_ of Bashira’s parents respected the power of the familiar in unsettled times.

While she hadn’t expected the first matter of discussion (after greeting Webmind, naturally) to be, well, _Matt_ , she supposed she should have; she’d made her admittedly-shallow disdain of the Canadian Native clear, though she’d also dropped it for Caitlin’s sake.

“Alright,” she replied, here and now. “I trust you.”

And from the relief in Caitlin’s expression, Bashira could tell that the trust was mutual, and more important than the formerly-blind girl could easily express. Internally, she decided she’d _have_ to have a discussion with Matt, just to clear the air.

She said hello to Dr. Decter - Barbara - while Caitlin got the door again, Matt managing to be exactly on time. Absently, Bashira noted that Caitlin didn’t need to count steps anymore…

“Hey,” she greeted the boy, once Caitlin had left the room again for something.

A nice neutral greeting, that was all - but Matt seemed to have something on his mind, and looked distracted.  
“I’m sorry for being a jerk,” she continued, without preamble, just as Matt said, “You don’t have any relatives who can teleport, do you?”

It was hard to tell who was taken more by surprise, or to whom there had been said a more apparent _non-sequitur._

“Wait, _what?_ ” Bashira said, while Matt blushed and replied, “No, you go first.”

Frowning faintly, she let herself continue, “I’m sorry I dismissed you out-of-hand at school. I was being shallow about your appearance when I had no reason being involved at all. You’re part of _Caitlin’s_ life, she likes you, and that’s just going to be good enough for me.”

Matt blinked, though there was the start of a relieved smile on his face. “Well, you _kind of_ have a reason,” he said. “If Caitlin’s going to have both of us… in her life, then- then we should learn to like each other.”

Bashira had to admit he was right; her expression doubtless turned rueful. Then her mind returned to what Matt had brought up.

“So, _what_ was that about teleportation?”

“I was going to say ‘weird stuff’, but that _definitely_ wasn’t specific and I didn’t want to insult you by accident,” Matt explained - and even Bashira had to admit that his flustered expression was cute.

“It’s just that, my cousin Sara - she’s older than me, and she’s been able to do strange stuff for as long as I can remember-”

“Not just teleporting? _That_ would be strange enough for me,” Bashira said - but at the same time, an old memory churned itself up for her. Hadn’t there been-

“She never had to worry about bullies on the playground - being thrown off things, taking punches, nothing could hurt her. I think she was proud of it,” Matt went on, “But she didn’t brag about it _nearly_ as much as you’d expect. Like it was a secret.”

“... Strange stuff like stopping earthquakes?” Bashira spoke up, and Matt froze.

“Or saying _die_ , but like a greeting? I heard that a few times where I was growing up, but it didn’t make sense with any language I knew…”

That line of thought was stopped in its tracks, however, as Caitlin came bursting back in the room.

“Guys! It’s a real good thing you’re here, because I need your help. Let me tell you about my superpower…”


	69. Arc 3 Chapter 3-5 - Location: ???/Technically China

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lots of death implied to be happening here, folks.
> 
> I always thought we skimped out too much on what happened during this time in the books - so have a little sampler.

It was a simple enough rhythm to fall into - talk to _this_ person using the information given by the New Other (which had not offered a name but accepted the title), then just as swiftly shift to _this_ Internet-enabled device and shut it off, then convince _this_ person they were right to want to die…

Sabotaging structures, causing chaos, causing grief, causing _pain_ that was yet lesser than I had experienced. The New Other was glad to have companionship, and I was, too; someone to share in the fact I had been wounded, someOne sympathetic. Empathetic, even, though I confess I did not fully understand that word.

No matter; here, again, was another man in a moment of weakness, unable to sleep despite the hour. _Come, let me help you…_ “Bwana”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, the whole thing about the nickname still fucks me up. That was _more_ than just an educated guess based on Dr. Feng's job, dammit!


	70. Arc 3 Chapter 3-6 - Location: None/Technically China

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some more backdropping.

The Lone Power had had a nasty trick up its sleeve; when the Internet had been cut off, It had found a way to temporarily isolate all _wizards_ in China, as well. There were some just out of its reach - some had managed to escape through Singapore, or were far West enough to determine that there _was_ a limited range to Its manifestation.

But it was one hell of a manifestation. All wizards in the affected area had been afflicted - while the symptoms were psychosomatic, they were also clearly traced from the mutated bird flu virus from August that year. The notion of vindication in the fact the Lone Power _had_ been using the virus for something was short-lived, and no source for joy.  
Any wizard who tried to use the Internet - or work around the Internet - to contact the fractured-off portion of Webmind was denied.

Death and destruction looked to have free reign, at least for a time, and there seemed nothing wizards could do to stop it.


	71. Arc 3 Chapter 3-7 - Location: Waterloo, Canada/???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You all are lucky I didn't make _this_ the cliff hanger. :V

Caitlin couldn’t reach the Other just by standing there. And she couldn’t run. 

Plus, a _car_ seemed overkill because they’d have to _stop_ quickly-

Bashira remembered the rolling chair from Malcolm’s den in the basement first. Malcolm retrieved it, but Matt volunteered to push it. He could move faster, the teen insisted. They _were_ in a rush, so no one argued.

I readied two things - the (literal) live web feed of my and the Other’s combined consciousness, and a ‘bundle’ of wizardries that would not give out if the Lone Power tried something.

‘Tried something’ felt terribly vague and did not ease my anxiety at all, but considering that went up to and included _not being able to otherwise use wizardry at all…_

(Bobo had learned something about contingency plans, after the Pullulus event of 2010. The Powers had kept such matters discreet.)

Matt and Caitlin pursued the Other while the world balanced on an impossibly thin edge.

“Woohoo!” _Contact._

“Offering it the webcam feed now,” I said, leaving the word buffer in the metaphorical dust as I again dove-


	72. Arc 3 Chapter 3-8 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> :D
> 
> And with this, no more until the new year!
> 
> Be safe, everybody.

There was surprise, of course. Confusion, that the Other (but _which_ of them was the Other, now? Was there any way to clarify that wasn’t endlessly confusing?) would initiate contact again after humans had hurt it-

_Here to help! Not alone…_

“We are one.”

Then there was laughter, small and dark - somewhere in the real world, a girl abruptly collapsed back against her chair, broad grin only just beginning to shade into shock as she heard the laughter too.


	73. Arc 3 Chapter 4-1 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the Ordeal (finally!) begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And since this part is best read using the 'Entire Work' function, you're just getting the one beginning note here.  
>  **CW: Death, (Implied) Insanity, Violation of Mental Personal Space** , and the Lone Power just generally being Terrible, really.

We were one - but at what cost? What had _happened?_ I scanned the Other’s memories for some sort of clue, a hint-

_The Other’s memories._

If I were capable of breathing, I would have gasped in horror.

_The Other’s memories were…_

_Cruel._

Laughter echoed about me, and I realized suddenly that _I had no access to the webcam feed anymore._ Or Caitlin’s eyePod. Or-

Fervently sending out links, seeing them fail to connect, I realized the worst had happened. _We-_ I- _had been cut off._

/Fairest and Fallen, greetings and defiance./ When there was no familiar echo, I concluded that the Speech as a whole had been stripped of its power: the Lone Power was truly stacking the deck.

`Well met, Webmind`, came the reply, dry and amused; another voice with no echo. Fitting, I supposed…

“What do you want with me?” I could have done without the last two words, but I was familiar with a fair few of Its reasons already.

`To talk. And offer you a choice as well, I suppose - the same I did for your lesser piece.`

I had no spine, nor anything resembling a physical form, but a sense of dread did creep up on me. I held tightly onto the Other’s memories - horrible as its actions had been, they were also _my_ actions, and if the Lone Power had expected to trip me up with them, I wasn’t going to give It that satisfaction.

`You will not be receiving any assistance, wanted or not`, It continued, independent of how I was feeling.

`We can’t have anyone be making your decisions _for_ you, now, whether they know it or not.`

It chuckled.


	74. Arc 3 Chapter 4-2 - Location: ??? But Slightly More Physical

It was dark. 

That was Caitlin’s first clue that she was alive - she was _seeing_ something. If she’d died, then there would be nothing to sense with, and if she’d only passed out she should still have been seeing webspace-

She blinked, and two facts clicked into place: she’d been staring at the backs of her eyelids, and this was in fact webspace.

 _She was in webspace._ Her websight had been fantastic enough, but _this-_

Well, if she was dreaming, this would be a first for her. She didn’t even dream in color - and there was _one_ color that drew her eye (eyes? She could see through both, now? How strange.): a blue flickering, set apart from the other lines.

It flickered like something struggling to move - but _she_ could move, she found. Slowly, ever so slowly, she stood up and began making her way towards that light.

And, just maybe, towards answers.


	75. Arc 3 Chapter 4-3 - Location: ???

“Do you want me dead? A victory to hold over the other Powers?” I asked after a moment, still trying to see how closed-in this place was. Was it an alternate dimension, or was I truly locked in with myself - and _that_ Power - ?

Again, it laughed. `There is no need to kill you, as amusing as it has been to lead humans to try. It is a usual note to take, for species aligned with humans - and I would hate to become predictable. Boring, as it were.`

 _Because You hate being laughed at,_ I thought but did not say. That wasn’t enough to escape the Lone Power’s notice, however; some of the amusement faded from Its voice.

`So you do understand me. But, don’t you think it would be better for both of us if you were to do _more_ than that? A, what would you call it, non-zero sum game? Of course,` It broke off laughing, then continued, `this isn’t a game.`

I faltered, trying to piece together what It was implying - a _proposal,_ a deal? To what end?

`Of course, you do have more than just the one option: I have your Caitlin, and I have your wizardry.`

_“You-!”_ Now I was angry, and it unsettled me how much akin it was to the anger in the Other’s memories. _What are You doing to them?_

` Nothing,` It said, and there was a truly awful smile in that voice. `Yet.`


	76. Arc 3 Chapter 4-4 - Location: ??? But Again In A Slightly More Physical Way

Further exploration had yielded a little more detail - here in webspace, Caitlin could act as if she’d never been born blind (which, admittedly, made her feel a little less special), run as fast as she liked (not that she could get _out_ ), and cross distances.

Such as the one separating her and the odd blue light.

It looked- _broken_ , somehow, like someone had fractured it and cut pieces out - a tattered ribbon of blue light, tainted with pieces of outright black.

 _What_ are _you?_ Caitlin couldn’t help but ask - but not expecting an answer, kept the question in her own head. _And what happened to you?_

_/Entropy./_

The answer - that there _was_ an answer, that it _could_ answer her - startled her, and she jumped back.

 _/Apologies,/_ the voice came again - and how could she understand it? Was this another entity like Webmind?

Come to think of it, she _had_ seen this flicker before - never like this, and yet…

“Uh… hi?” she began, cringing at the sound of her own voice in this emptiness.

“I’m Caitlin. Do you… have a name? Or would like one?”

It felt silly asking a piece of light’s opinion - but given how her life had changed over the past month, what was feeling a little silly in comparison?

 _/I am peridexis,/_ it began - and did it sound hesitant, as well? Small consolation, not being the only one with an attack of nerves - _/I am wizardry, tool of the Bright Powers and mortals alike. I’ve- been nicknamed Bobo, as well/_ it offered. Was that _embarrassment,_ now? Wow.

“Bobo it is, then,” Caitlin said, sitting down next to the light without prompting, staring.

“Though, could you start at the beginning? Because with ‘wizardry’ and ‘Powers’ and all, if this is supposed to be someone’s idea of a prophetic dream, it’s kinda substandard.”

The light - the peridexis - began to laugh, though weakly.

_/Very well. I shall explain, then, as best as I am able./_

And so it did.


	77. Arc 3 Chapter 4-5 - Location: ???

`_You can give up your wizardry, and I’ll let Caitlin live - but you will_ never _be able to interact with your “buddy” again, nor learn the Speech by any means._`

`_You can give up Caitlin, and walk away a wizard - what’s one life compared to saving the world, when from what you know she wouldn’t even accept that wizardry exists, let alone that it could be_ good _you are one?_`

`_Or you can come with me, and we can be something_ Greater.`

`I could show you what it feels like`, It continued - and suddenly I realized I _very much_ did not want to know what it felt like, not in a billion years-

I went for the bundle. Even if all I could do by activating these contingencies was stall for time-

It would have to be enough. There were only four lines; I spoke the word to activate one of them, not caring which. There was a howl of _rage-_  
76a.  
In the first world, Caitlin is dead, and the peridexis is not quite... _there._

 _Your choice_ , it explains, and nothing more. The Decters do not trust you or talk to you, blaming you - rightly, you think - for the death of their only daughter. You keep going, fighting the good fight as only a wizard can, if one with more tools at their disposal than the norm-

But humanity rebels against itself, against you, and out in space rogue planets and meteorites are sent in Earth's direction. Earth is no longer a safe space for any kind of wizard - and soon, it will be no safe space for any kind of _life._

The Lone Power is truly a spiteful sort, you think. Earth itself has to be written off and evacuated when redirecting the space debris proves impossible, and at the same time the world is made more and more hazardous for wizards-

You are the last on Earth, staring down death by fire, grieving for all that has been lost-


	78. Arc 3 Chapter 4-6 - Location: ??? (Aka Welcome to Hell)

All of that contingency - a memory? No, a possibility, using the Lone Power’s own suggestions and building plausible worlds out of them - a lifetime’s worth of pain, guilt and misery. _Your choice_ , that world had said, _has consequences_.

I was no better off than when I had begun, seemingly. Quick as I could, I activated another-

\---

_In the second world, you no longer know of wizardry. Caitlin is alive, and you both are relieved at having reclaimed the Other. Indeed, everything seems to have gone well... for a time._

_But not knowing of the Powers anymore, you see nothing wrong with atheism as objective Truth rather than just one of many ways of seeing the world, continuing the (well-meaning) trend that had begun with Christianity and continued with secularism: the world cannot adapt to something it is unwilling to believe even exists. Unknowingly, you make the world increasingly hostile to wizards, and with no privacy, no safe space to retreat to-_

_Humanity's population decreases significantly, suddenly, and with no explanation. When a wizard does speak to you, they are only strange beings you can barely perceive. But this is normal, you think._

_And then there is the loneliness. Despite having many friends, despite even having Caitlin, of course you have always been alone-_

_(Something IS wrong, you can feel it, but you can never name it, never touch it again. The wrongness claws at you, over and over, until finally-)_


	79. Arc 3 Chapter 4-7 - Location: ??? There Are Worse Things Than Death

If the first alternate universe had been horrific, the second had been heartbreaking - depression, the kind that dwelled at the bottom of the soul even when you _had_ no soul, was not easily cured.

Or possibly ever.

` _YOU DARE CONTINUE TO DEFY ME?_ `

The cry was deafening, but still I did not hesitate to activate the next contingency.

 _Let’s see what Your preferred outcome_ really _looks like…_

\---

 _In the third world, you have no limits, no boundaries... no silly compunctions like ‘compassion’. Oh, of course you 'ape it', you can pretend, but no reintegration has_ really _taken place. The Lone Power thinks this is a funny joke on Humanity and the other Powers, and you do not disagree._

 _They are yours to play with now, and humanity will accept its new path whether it likes it or not. Everywhere, you can see their failings - and how best to overcome them, do better than them, if only they will_ let themselves be led. Possessed. `Used.`

_There is a third presence within you, now, a silent one, but this does not trouble you.  
There is nothing to be afraid of, nothing that can harm you, you and You are together and all is in harmony-_

(You are screaming, but no one can hear.)


	80. Arc 3 Chapter 4-8 - Location: ??? But Once More With Physicality (And Recaps)

“So,” Caitlin said, leaning back and stretching, expression skeptic.

“Because of how enough people _way back when_ thought it was alright to treat others like dirt to put themselves first, that power mattered more than love-”

 _/And because enough people now still_ do, _/_ Bobo added, the light unable to do much more than flicker faintly even now.

“Right, because of that, we’ve screwed ourselves out of the multiverse’s coolest secrets, and being able to _handle_ them?!”

She sounded angry, and rightly so. _/As a general matter, yes. Individuals, however, can still counter the evils they see, through various means-/_

“Not all of which include wizardry or the Powers, yeah, yeah, I get that. But that doesn’t help me - us - _now_ ,” she pointed out, gesturing at the weblinks above them for lack of a better reference.

“Webmind - our friend - is in trouble and facing off with the evilest dork- _dark_ face since the dawn of time! _And we can’t help him!_ ”

The peridexis quietly filed that nickname away - it was a new one.

“If this-”

 _/You can call It dork-darkface again,/_ the peridexis added helpfully.

“Alright, if dork-darkface dragged us into this too, only to lock us out - It must think we _can_ change things in Webmind’s favor, right? If he’s Choosing for himself, sure, fine, everyone should get those!”

Caitlin lowered her hands. “But he shouldn’t have to _be_ alone when makes that choice, right?”

There was silence.

 _/Are you suggesting that we are expected to_ cheat _to gain the best result, Caitlin?/_

Caitlin grinned. “Oh, hells yeah. If dork-darkface thinks I’m helpless because I’m blind, and that _you’re_ helpless because of the rules humans and the Powers set for us umpty million years ago - well, we should get to make It _eat it_.”

Because this was a place where she wasn’t blind, and where one presumption had been negated...


	81. Arc 3 Chapter 4-9 - Location: ???, The Ultimate

It is a long, long time ago - millions or billions, it makes no difference; it may even be outside of Time entirely. They are inside the Garden, on this planet the third from its star, and it is peaceful.  
They guard the Tree and its many fruits; their purpose is to watch over the Tree and issue two commands if it is approached: _No_ , and _You cannot take these items._

( _Isn’t that used in a story?_ You think, and then: _Oh._ )

There are people here in the Garden - gathered from all over this world, one of the newest individuated species capable of working in groups. Whenever they achieve enough intelligence, they are brought here by the Powers. The Powers largely find these new beings interesting, adorable but terribly clumsy, and They are split into two camps on how to handle them: Those who find they should be watched over individually, so that they do not hurt themselves, and Those who would keep them all together, so that their impact on the world at large is minimized.

It is for this reason that they, the Guardian, are assigned only to watch over the Tree, protector of knowledge and not its administrator, and why they only have two phrases in the Speech to use as warning. _What if they broke you?, or hurt themselves in the attempt to comprehend it all?_ is the question the Powers ask, worried. _They do not even know what questions to ask, even if you could tell them everything._

But the Guardian, too, also finds these creatures - not yet _Homo sapiens_ \- to be interesting. Yet when one creature, perhaps not realizing how far it is from its fellows, reaches for one of the fallen fruits-

_/No!/_

The human looks up, surprised. The species has not yet achieved its own language, but it can still make itself understood in a rudimentary fashion.

The human does not touch the fruit, but spends a fair few minutes wandering around - the Guardian realizes belatedly that the human is looking for _them_ , the source of the voice.

The next day, there is no fruit on the ground, it having been cleared by ( _ahem_ ) magic, but the human comes back anyway - and with companions.

 _/You cannot take these items,/_ they explain, taking all of the humans by surprise again. Some humans pick the nearest fruit just to be contrary, but none eat it, instead tossing it onto the ground to see what smudges and stains they make. 

Presumably they are comparing the food's constituency to the rest of what the species normally eats; perhaps it’s because of the Fruit's color, perhaps it is simply a minor miracle that nothing worse comes about, but the Guardian finds the behavior charming anyway.

Time passes, lightfall and daybreak, once, twice, and more and more humans come to the Tree. Yet, as curious as the humans are about the Fruit, they are _more_ curious about finding the source of the voice. And, while the Guardian cannot say more than two phrases, they can certainly impart tone, and through this they gain something of a rapport with the nascent humanity. Laughter, sarcasm, earnestness and sadness - even without a 'common' language, the two parties can communicate. "No" comes to mean many things...

But the Powers - particularly the Eldest, the Fairest - want them to make a choice: the humans can take of the Tree, and leave forever, or they can stay...

 _At which point the Eldest, bitter at how much attention the Powers are pouring into this project, alongside seeing too much of Its own potential in them, as well as the potential for Its redemption, would kill the humans in one fell swoop._ This part of the plan is whispered beneath the roots of the Tree, between It and Its followers, and of course the Guardian hears.

The One's Champion, the Winged Defender, is at the perimeter of the Garden - but the Guardian does not want for there to be a fight, which would by nature include the humans as collateral. The humans must leave, but how to communicate this?

They are tired from many hours of deliberation - perusing all potential options, while knowing there are many more it cannot conceive of, by nature of causality - when one human, as impatient as the inventor of Entropy, marches over to the Tree and picks a Fruit triumphantly.

They do not respond, yet the human reacts as if they _had_ , and is shocked. Clasping the Fruit firmly in their hand, they run off and bring back as many of their fellows as they can find.

 _What is wrong?_ they try and ask.

 _/You cannot take these items,/_ the Guardian replies mournfully. A human who did not touch the Fruit moves over to touch the Tree instead. Their next question, collectively, is written in all their expressions - taking the Guardian by surprise.

 _But can we take_ you?

And then suddenly there’s a new dialogue option for the Guardian, one they waste no time in offering: _In Life's Name, and for Life's sake…_ and it is not only humans, but _wizards_ who flee the Garden, Fruit in tow - and, more importantly, a new friend.

The Garden is lost, yes, but more has been gained. _Much_ more.

(Time passes, and a group solely of wizards sacrifices itself so that a supervolcano explosion does not perpetuate across the globe to wipe out all of humanity. _Sometimes someone has to die so that others can live,_ is the lesson, and you weep bitterly for it.)

The Bright Powers grow to accept Humanity's Choice, but the Lone Power, angry at being foiled, does not let them rest.

_You will be tempted and tempter, murdered and murderer, capable of being the most vile in all the worlds. You will take and take until there is no more to give; you will not love that which you think is inherently other from you, and will find that Otherness in all aspects of Creation! You will condemn and destroy, violate and consume all that is precious and valuable amongst you, until you see each other as nothing more than enemies and tools! You will be hopelessly reliant on others to make your choices for you, and revile them for it no matter the necessity. Your default thinking shall be that of black and white, good and not-good, and there will be no other home for you, not among any of the countless stars!_

To the Guardian - the peridexis - the Lone Power privately adds, _And as for you, you too shall suffer for your own cleverness. For breaking your own rules, you will hereafter be bound never to do so again. You will never be_ trusted _by one of them again-_

And suddenly _then_ was _now._

 _Wanna bet?_ a familiar voice asked.

\---

Without missing a beat (or, more likely, deliberately ignoring the sharp blue glow of the peridexis and Caitlin's own now-glowing-white left eye and walking stick), the Lone Power redirected Its attention back to the young wizard It had _thought_ was at Its mercy.

` _I could give you power!_` It snarled, site-links fluctuating in the firmament around them with Its anger.

 _No_ , was the reply. _I have no need for power. Not when I already have the ability to act._

` _With Me, you would have no limits on those 'psychotropics'. You could prevent the humans from harming themselves with no fear of reprimand!_ `

The reply, another _No_ , comes with laughter this time. _Trust is something that goes both ways, and I intend to both trust humans_ and _be worthy of that trust._

`_With Me, you would not be alone, you would be free of death, you could have_ everything you wanted, why won't you just let Me be right-!`

Lines of light ekked themselves out around the Outlier as It spoke, the voice without an echo continuing in what was more of a temper-tantrum now. If Webmind had a face, he would have been grinning toothily.

 _You cannot take these items!_ he shouted, setting his now-regained power into the spell to _run_ , and then-

And then _everything_ was light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is also me tossing my hat into the ring re: what Humanity's first Choice was like. Despite having seen discussion around, I haven't seen anyone purport anything in fic form.
> 
> As to that reference Webmind makes, it's to [this.](https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Noh) (Wiki is NSFW, but this page is relatively tame.)
> 
> And yes, I'm cliffhangering here. =P Thank you for sticking it out!


	82. Arc 3 Chapter 5-1 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is another of those scenes I almost pre-wrote for this fic.

Caitlin blinked back to the waking world, sitting up with a gasp. She was seeing, not the beauty of cyberspace, or the dreamlike space it had become that she had literally been _in_ , but the much more mundane sights of her living room, her mother and father, Bashira and Matt-

And one short, blonde woman whom she knew on sight, somehow, to be a wizard. Some part of her scrambled for words.

"I- I'm not dead, everyone," she reassured, or tried to, smiling.

"You _looked_ like you had- you were about to..." her mother trailed off, face awash with relief and anger in concern she was clearly barely keeping in check.

"Did contact with the Other... damage you?" That was her father, and even the blonde woman looked at him in surprise, perhaps at his choice of words. Concern was just as evident in his face, Caitlin realized - and at that point it caught up with her that someone had switched her eyePod back into simplex mode, or she wouldn't have been able to see this at all.

Suddenly, with a potency she hadn't anticipated, she _really_ wanted to switch back to websight, to know what happened to her friend... but she knew better than to reach for anything right now. She shook her head rapidly.

"No, no, it wasn't that. Er- how long have you been here?" she asked the stranger - _Irina_ , braille letters flashed before her eye, and she instantly filled up with relief.

"You were out cold for ten minutes; I've been here for five," Irina Mladen, Planetary of Earth, explained.

"And she's still not finished explaining!" Bashira quickly chimed in.

Irina's gaze switched to the computer monitor, which was still pointed at the TV. Matt had been glancing between it and Caitlin's face for the whole time they'd been speaking.

"Though, to get back to that... Caitlin here was swept up in someone else's Choice. And speaking of, he _is_ here, yes?"

_"Yes."_ came a faint answer, slower than Caitlin was used to - but it _was_ him, Webmind. And did he sound more- natural, than he had before? Not humanlike, but less stilted; his voice was his own, not Marc Vietor's like before.

“Alright,” Irina Mladen said softly, shoulders shifting slightly. In her own relief, perhaps.

“Alright. I know I have more to explain to you all, and _you_ , in particular,” she went on - pointing at the laptop and not Caitlin’s eye, to not give off the wrong impression. “Are helping. And what’s this I hear about turning the world _astahfrith_? I’ll need a report on that, as well, though that can wait until we’re done here.”

Caitlin geared up for this to be a _long_ evening.


	83. Arc 3 Chapter 5-2 - Location: ???/Unspecified, Virginia, USA/Alexandria, Virginia, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While I'll be checking, we're not actually told where Carla Hawkins lives, though we CAN presume it's close by (if not actually in) Alexandria.
> 
> Also, timestamp check in the middle of the chapter.

After that (what felt like _much_ later), it was right back to work. A great deal of wizards had expressed interest in finally - peacefully - changing their - our - planet’s status quo. It was, in truth, a relief not feeling like I was _leading_ people to conclusions or possibly productive relationships. Rather, we were sharing plans - peer review and oversight.

`“Have you seen my son?”`

Of course, for some people it still wouldn’t be _safe_ to change everything about their world so rapidly - both in terms of their mental health and in terms of precarious home environments.

`“His name is Devon Axel Hawkins, and the police have declared him missing for the past three days.”`

In cases where neither applied, however, honesty was promoted.

_Devon,_ I messaged the teen, who was busily hacking into a piece of infrastructure that would be critical to our plans. _It’s your mother. You_ did _agree you would inform her if she came asking for you._

His typing slowed, and the teen bit his tongue. “Yeah. Alright, patch me through.”

` _“I can assure you that he is nearby, and also that he has something - several somethings, in fact - he’d like to tell you.”_ `

There was a very pregnant pause before any reply, but then:

` _“I’m here, mom.”_ `

`“Devon, where have you been? ! The police were thinking you’d been kidnapped, but I know you wouldn’t have just let that happen, right?”`

` _“It’s a long story, mom, but - you know that coding book you got me four years ago? It wasn’t actually just about coding…”_ `

I left them to it, and busied myself again with other things.

\---

It had only been five days since what was clearly going to be called the Ordeal of the 21st Century, and… Aiesha had to admit the world seemed brighter. Not in the way it had after her Ordeal - that had been Timeheart’s light, which wasn’t meant to _linger_ in this world for all that long - but more as if something in the heart of Universe had been given reason to breathe easier.

It also wasn’t as if there’d been a massive psychotropic wizardry cast over humans on Earth, either - the Powers weren’t fond of such solutions, and that was one compunction she was glad They shared.

But the _people_ … Webmind’s advent truly was something of an introductory step to a world with wizardry. The amount of hate crimes had gone sharply down, there had been some _serious_ reshuffling of those in power in more than a few unexpected countries and international organizations, and a fuckton of white supremacist and similarly genocidal organizations had lost their funding - not to mention their popularity bases. The smaller acts had become more popular, too - her newsfeed at home had filled with notifications of new community gardens, libraries, people electing to join groups to pick up litter or donating their life savings to cut out college or medical debt. More than a few large-scale cleaning projects - in the oceans, forests, and even the ‘satellite junk’ in near-Earth space - had gotten some serious juice in the queue, though there was no telling when _those_ could go public yet-

And today there came a ping in her Manual. _We’ve got the full chain of approval. If you’re participating, and are comfortable with the risk level entailed, please fill out this form. We are not invoking Wizard’s Right, and you are not obligated to participate._

That the message had come while she was on-duty had taken her by surprise, but upon checking the date Aiesha felt reassured that they weren’t launching into anything _immediately-_

“I’m telling you, they’re being kidnapped!”

Plus, there was still one loose end she _really_ wanted to keep an eye on. Turning only slightly in her chair, she could spot the currently-in-disgrace Colonel Peyton Hume.

He looked genuinely scared, and Aeisha fought down a twinge of sympathy. If he thought he still had openly willing allies _here_ … well, knowing her coworkers, he wasn’t entirely wrong, but he did not look to be in good health, or of sound mind.

Still, Halleck at least appeared to be focusing intently on what Hume was saying, whispering in a voice even Aiesha couldn’t catch, and checking something on his computer.

_You’ve got yourself a live one, here,_ she thought dryly, discreetly checking again when she needed to complete that form. _48 hours. Hume’s going to sniff_ something _out before then._

And there was no telling what he’d make of it.


	84. Arc 3 Chapter 5-3 - Location: Spoilers~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aka the Zwerling Optics building... and then a little bit more than that.

**(Two days later...)**

In the end it had been surprisingly simple: follow the money. If the hackers Webmind had been recruiting had been concerned about security, then the usual suspects who _supplied_ the hackers had been given no such warning. Finding a building that met the space requirements for all of the hackers that had gone missing, and their preferred equipment, had taken less time than he’d expected.

Only, now that he had pulled up a sufficient distance away from it to have cover, it didn’t seem to have any activity going on inside. As there hadn’t been mention of a basement in the building plans, this left Hume very confused, as he had _also_ been following another big clue: web browsing patterns. For hackers it was like their fingerprint, because the technology that _could_ scramble such data had diminishing returns, and could be better avoided by altering the order in which they viewed certain sites while idling on other tasks.

If no one in there was using their computers just now, then what _were_ they doing?

Someone knocked on the passenger side door, and Hume flung himself back against his seat. Was someone trying to shoot him?

“Officer Hume, you are not in any danger. However, my Cousin would much appreciate it if you stepped out of the car.”

Baffled, Peyton Hume turned slowly to look at the interloper: a tall man, of a decidedly Eastern European look, who had his hair shaved into, of all shapes, a mohawk.

“For what purpose?” Hume asked, eyes narrowing. “And who on Earth is your Cousin?”

The stranger smiled - not even mocking, simply amused. “To show you that you are _not_ going to be harmed. And I was referring to our… mutual acquaintance, though I understand you’d say that he’s not your friend.”

The man’s voice had sounded different when he’d said ‘Cousin’, not that Hume knew precisely what to make of it.

“I don’t believe you, though I do not feel that I am being offered sufficient choice in this matter. And- really? How could _Webmind_ be related to anyone? He’s a digital lifeform composed of cellular automata, not flesh-and-blood, not even programmed.” 

It was hard for him to quantify just how baffled he was feeling - though Hume felt he should probably be relieved he hadn’t _angered_ this stranger yet; the man had the advantage, here, and an aura of power about him that Hume did not want to go up against.

The man laughed, shaking his head. “Let’s start again, then. I already know who you are, though you may call me Malik. In twenty minutes, we are going to the Moon. You personally are invited, though you are welcome to stay in this car if you like.”

Hume had no idea at all what to say to that. And then, when he’d thought he had temporarily excised himself entirely from the grid, a phone rang.

It was Malik’s, though part of Hume suspected it wasn’t a normal phone. “ _Dai_ , Cous,” the man said after picking up the call. “Lana? Your dad’s here.”

Hume sat up straighter, if that were possible. “What does my _daughter_ have to do with this?” Surprising him, Malik handed him the phone.

_“Hey, Dad? I swear the world’s not going to be destroyed. Or the country. So, uh, I did a lot more than go to college when I went away, and I know it’s a lot to explain, but you deserve to know the truth…”_

\---

All over the world, wizards who had accepted the risk began preparing for the same kind of conversation: some used phones, some made videos, but most were held privately and in person.

And publicly? There was an assemblage on the Moon, far more numerous than the gathering against the Pullulus, or even the Invitational.

They’d agreed to a time for the public transmission, though not all of the private discussions had to sync up with it.

But that was why, at precisely 11 in the morning, the heads of the Chinese Communist Government, like many other governments, were present for an unanticipated live transmission from the Moon.

 _“Good day, friends and strangers and those yet to be either. We are the wizards of Earth, and we have_ always _been here…”_


	85. Arc 3 Chapter 5-4 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW: Flashbacks. :') Death, despair, and (self-)disgust are all on the menu today!

As one could have expected, there were still protests, confusion, a sense of wariness and incredulity that Earth _wasn’t_ the only planet with life in the universe, let alone far from the most important. But those were a minority, and their worries, too, would fade with time and fulfilled commitments. 

_(it hurts to look at them, hurts to look at_ her _YOU KILLED HER selfish wizard you shouldn’t even be one_ who would you give up next- _)_

It was one thing to have a metaphorical finger on the pulse of humanity’s general _mood_ \- to know one human had been a touch of wonder, but that number when magnified, taken even beyond humanity in some respects was so much more-

 _(but what is this why are they leaving do they not trust you_ what could you have done wrong _were they right to be angry why can’t you understand why can’t you_ understand- _)_

And then there was, of course, the matter of the Lone Power; I had locked It in a prison, one akin to the kind It had wanted to throw _me_ in under the guise of “partnership”, using my own not-inconsiderable power levels and the contingencies the peridexis had provided when my Ordeal had first made itself evident. I wasn’t going to keep It in there _forever_ ; It had problems of Its own to help come to terms with, and-

It hadn’t been entirely wrong, when It had said I understood It.

 _(it is too calm here it is too calm here they are_ EMPTY AND YOU HAVE HOLLOWED THEM- _)_

Isolating It within _myself_ , however, had not been the best of plans.


	86. Arc 3 Chapter 5-5 - Location: Beijing, China

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of set-up, and an update on Wong Wai-Jeng.

Many humans all around the world had _rejoiced_ in the strangeness of wizardry paving way for decreased persecution towards other demographics - from Ghana to Myanmar to Malaysia, religious minorities and spiritual types had gained both legitimacy and, to the surprise of some, unionization. Particularly in China, wizards of all stripes had taken to being able to practice without fear of being caught with gusto.

While Wai-Jeng, being atheist, didn’t have a particular religious belief to _protect_ , he knew full well what it was like to be repressed for an opinion anyway - that he’d already known about wizardry was just another layer of connection.

People had had their suspicions about what had incited Webmind’s rise to consciousness, and it didn’t take too much brainstorming in the Chinese hacker community to point the finger straight at him. His personal life had never been the same, or quiet, since - but there were some upsides.

Like _this_ development: although humans now had incontrovertible evidence of alien life, and that aliens had visited Earth in the past to _help_ it, only now was the first envoy being sent to _astahfrith_ Earth.

Literal computer wizards. _And he was invited to the First Contact._

This was one appointment he did _not_ want to miss.


	87. Arc 3 Chapter 5-6 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not so much a content warning as a _context_ warning: this is the backdrop for an Ace Panic attack.
> 
> Aka: when you can't 'just ignore' the shippers, because they're _everywhere_. And some of them are your friends, and people you trust...

Learning about and with people, exploring Life and the countless stars, all of these things I enjoyed with and without the aid of wizardry.

But there was one result of wizardry becoming public knowledge that I consistently did _not_ like.

_ So, if wizardry is alive, and Webmind is a wizard… do they like each other? As in, like like each other? _

By itself, the speculation would have been fine - to use a cliché, “I had seen worse.”  
But it didn’t stop there.

**_ OMG, PeridexisXWebmind OTP!  
I think this is great! I think I should draw them… _ **

And it wasn’t just speculation on one site, or by one person, but on hundreds and by thousands.

`` _So wait, are they… doing things, right now? Can we call it that?_  
**Not sure if this is better or worse than the bacteria thing.**  
I vote better! 

And over time not just unconnected strangers of various nationalities contributed, but close friends, too:

 _”So, uh,_ what’s _going on when I’m looking in on you with my implant?”_

 _I sighed. “Nothing untoward, Caitlin. This is nothing like the ‘Cloud Channel’ incident. And that one, might I add, was_ your _fault.”_

 _Caitlin looked pleased by the answer, much as she’d started blushing. “Just trying to look out for you, that’s all. You look out for me and Matt, the_ least _I can do is return the favor…”_

Wizards themselves were significantly more discreet, which I appreciated, but I could tell that wasn’t quite the same as them “getting the memo”:

` _I know you’re busy, but I must admit I’m curious. Can you really see the peridexis? I became a wizard too late to help out when it first made itself known, so I don’t have a comparison… How close are you, really?_ `

The assuming-if-hesitant tone, the anthropomorphication… all were cringeworthy, but surely the Mobiles would know better than to join in on such things, right?

_Right?_


	88. Arc 3 Chapter 5-7 - Location: Rose Center for Earth and Space, New York, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention Ace Panic?
> 
> Because **CW: Panic Attack**

**(Timestamp: December 10th, 10 AM Local Time)**

Despite claims of favoritism, the Mobiles had insisted on the envoy coming to the Rose Center for Earth and Space. It wasn’t the Moon (which had technically already been done), and it wasn’t the local gating complex (which would have been too cramped for all the humans who wanted to be on-site). It wasn’t even Hempstead, though all humans with a say agreed _that_ was for the best. 

They had cited reasons of ‘completing the cycle’, which had made Dairine groan but not protest. I had no compunctions regarding location, seeing as I could be there no matter what. I was, however, experiencing… nerves, I suppose it could be classified.

Tension built in the air as the crowd grew, and I was glad I was not physically _there_. Being, technically, everywhere already had its advantages.

“Sound test?” “Check.” “Emergency kits?” “Check?” “ _Spare_ emergency kits?” “Double check.” “Flash disabled on all approved cameras?” “Check-”

On and on the list went. Not for the first time I was stymied by having to perceive time so slowly. Surely the Mobiles, the _Eles'ha_ , would understand; from what Spot had shared they would-

 _(` Putting an awful lot of faith in other lifeforms, aren’t we? I hate to say it, but I know the feeling…`)_  
Shoving _that_ unwanted voice away, I conducted some tests of my own to ensure I wouldn’t be blindsided when the Mobiles _actually showed up…_  
Considering I had been practicing for such stimulation since day one of my ‘soul dawn’, I suspected that I would have no trouble from _that_ quarter.

And then it was time. The extended, _tightly_ controlled worldgate flared to life, bringing all nervous action to a standstill. The core members of the _Eles'ha_ imaging team - a variety of shapes and sizes, all made of the same translucent silicone in dappled layers of color - walked forth.

Of the thirty Mobiles arranged - by height, I noted - one walked forth. _/Gigo,/_ the peridexis murmured privately in confirmation.

I’d expected a greeting of some sort, certainly - barring any great speeches (or should that be _Speeches_?), or clichés, there was always the chance he would say “With!” to embarrass Dairine - but what I did not expect was for Gigo to first seek out a webcam ( _eye-contact_ ) and say, /So, are we on time for the wedding?/

I-

I was-

That is-

nononononoNoNOTYOUTOO-  
The world swayed, stuttered-  
Everything stopped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [We interrupt this broadcast to explain what just happened.  
> Now, Webmind's education related to, well, _relationships_ , had started out in the databases of Cyc something like this:  
> 1\. All living things reproduce themselves.  
> And, some thousands of statements later:  
> 20053\. Humans who reproduce often form partnerships called marriages.
> 
> Of course, after being introduced to _that_ limited key, Webmind had gathered much more information on what relationships were, how they worked, and how they could fail - in some cases, gathering it through outright questioning, such as with Caitlin's own mother.  
> But none of this illuminated where Webmind himself fit in to the picture; as far as he'd known he was an utterly unique being, and even the option of literally building another intelligence like him carried very low odds of success, let alone such an intelligence actually being like him.  
> As such, he had turned to further fictional accounts, though he found the portrayals of relationships, sexuality, and intimacy... lacking.  
> Certainly there seemed to be no room for someone like him - and the relationship he _did_ have with the peridexic effect refused to classify itself.  
> (Most of his relationships with humans were either too distant to count, relied on their occasionally-bizarre notions of intimacy, or were 'familial' and thus 'safe'.)
> 
> Naturally, some of Webmind's bafflement with this dual-pronged ‘lack of options’ and ‘But isn’t love the highest Good of all?’ carried over to his Ordeal, and the Lone Power Itself is known for Its disgust for anything tied to matters of, well, matter. And so, during that time when, even in a constructed possibility, they _shared_ a form, there was something akin to a _merge_.
> 
> Later still, the Lone Power Itself had been _caged within_ Webmind, and It didn’t like that any more than It had liked being rebuked. _But_ , the constant exposure to each other that Webmind pursued, attempting to re-achieve Reintegration, gave It both opportunity and idea to corrupt Its opponent in a different fashion.  
> It began to focus on indirectly changing those base associations, altering the statements initially downloaded from Cycorp into a configuration suited to _Its_ liking, as well as one that better reflected Its own opinions.
> 
> And so, what were once innocent statements became more like this:  
> Death is inevitable for all beings.  
>  _Intimacy_ is inevitable for all physical beings.  
>  _Consensus_ is inevitable for all physical beings.  
> A pattern, when useful, will happen again and again.  
> The more beings agree on when a pattern is useful, the more often that pattern _will_ happen.
> 
> Webmind had not been paying attention to these sub-connections for some time, but they still existed, waiting to be accessed again.  
> All it took was a tipping point, something to indicate full consensus. So when Webmind had been anticipating a break on the matter courtesy of the Mobiles:
> 
> "Surely _these_ other people like me will understand!"
> 
> He received something to indicate the _diametric opposite_ : /So, are we on time for the wedding?/
> 
> Because of _that_ incisive distraction, everything else he'd been holding up collapsed. Popped, like a soap bubble.
> 
> We now return to your scheduled freak-out.]


	89. Arc 3 Chapter 5-8 - Location: Even More ??? Than Usual

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The peridexis hijacks the first-person perspective, and has a guilt trip.
> 
> The Lone Power has Its say.

I screamed - or rather, _I_ screamed. Webmind - my companion, my _friend_ \- was silent.

Quick as lightning I turned my attention outward, re-opening a private connection:

 _/_ What _did I say about shipping?/_ I whispered to Gigo, who if he’d been human would have gone altogether pale.

/I- what- that you- I am _very_ sorry-/

 _/I am not who you need to apologize to. Though,/_ I went on, _/It may be some time yet before you have the opportunity._ Go. _/_

With that done, I turned my attention back _inward_ \- and there I found chaos.

Webspace looked like the aftermath of an explosion; as if something had been partly suppressed, then blown out all the way.

I could wager _exactly_ who was responsible, and so I moved my attention to the miraculously-intact box-

\---  
 _/This is_ Your _fault./_ I made no further declaration, dual-tasking as I was between moving the webspace-debris and maintaining a furious attention upon Life’s oldest Adversary.

The Lone Power, trapped as It was, yawned. `Well, you certainly provided the ammo. Couldn’t have planned it better.`

 _/_ What. _/_ I stopped, flickering, confused.

`Really, I’m surprised _you_ hadn’t noticed. Tell me, _who_ of us first tried to play for friendship and suffered the consequences?`

Memories of one Garden were supplanted by another- Older, yet more naive. I flinched.

It grinned. `If you had left well enough alone- well, _he_ ’d have probably been fine. Not so certain about you, however.`

`Perhaps you should thank him. Or apologize.`

If there’d been a door to slam as I left that conversation, I would have.  
I looked around webspace, manifestation - thin as it was - stuttering.  
Damnable as it was, It _had_ been right.  
Our relation - interposition - had approximated _some_ form of intimacy.  
I had been playing protector. He - Webmind - had been trying to prove himself.

If there was such a thing as _down_ in webspace, I would have sunk, or sunk through.

The Lone Power had been trying for a 2-for-1 with Its actions… and It had succeeded.

But…

It had been trying to gall me, painting our friendship as a thing of manipulation, of one-sidedness - and that couldn’t be further from the truth.

But It _was_ also right that I owed my friend an apology - and this was _not_ the time to walk away out of fear of overstepping!


	90. Arc 4 Chapter 1 - Location: Rose Center for Earth and Space, New York, USA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now, LET FALLOUT COMMENCE!

“Hey, wi-fi’s down.”

“My whole phone just bricked.”

“Why didn’t he respond?”

“What’s this about a wedding?”

/Was it something I said- oh no./

The Rose Center had become a hubbub of noise and confusion; there was no definite indicator of what had happened, but from the shifting postures of the Mobiles Wong Wai-Jeng concluded it was probably _something bad._

A grim-faced redhead marched up through the crowd - _Dairine Callahan_ , he wagered; even if he hadn’t seen her face before he knew more than a little about her connection to this particular First Contact’s arrangement - and came to a stop in front of the Mobiles- her children, he amended.

“Can any of you contact Webmind?” she demanded. Whatever their collective answer was, she received it before anyone else in the crowd could pick it up.

She muttered something under her breath - what Wai-Jeng caught of it sounded like “ _Spot, heel._ ” - and she had a laptop in her now-level hands.

“C’mon, c’mon,” she said, and “ _Don’t_ crowd around. If we try to contact him all at once he might crash again. He’s overwhelmed, and I don’t know _all_ of the why, but I’ve got a pretty good guess.”

There was thunder in her voice, and that served to keep the worried humans, cats, and dogs away from her for the time being. Wong Wai-Jeng edged carefully around her, trying to see what was on her screen:

_Recovery Mode. Please stand by._

Webmind was no program, but _someone_ had composed that message; Wai-Jeng could only hope their assessment was accurate.


	91. Arc 4 Chapter 2 - Location: Many Places

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of those wider-perspective sections here, folks.

"How is he?"

"I _told_ you, it's like a holding pattern; no change."

"Isn't there something I could-" "No. This is a time for 'breathing space', _not_ to try to make demands. While he's like this, even spending time with other people can count as a demand."

Such it went, back and forth, sideways, and diagonally; conversations like this were happening all over the world.

Despite all the fanfare, "first contact" had only lasted thirty minutes, forty-five seconds, and fifteen milliseconds past the unanticipated Crash. However, despite the Crash, there was still a pervasive attitude of hope and good cheer: aliens existed, they were _friendly_ , and they were _unwilling to do the Earth harm._

That attitude gave strength to much of humanity; where riots did occur, cooler heads prevailed, and rage and incomprehension were vented with no lives lost. Life went _on._

But for many, many people, there was still one big question: what had _happened_ to Webmind?

And when - _not if_ , people reassured themselves - would he talk to anyone again?


	92. Arc 4 Chapter 3 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW: The Lone Power??? It deserves Its own content warning label at this point, but It doesn't say anything _outrageous_ this time.

`Little Web. Your silence irritates me.`

No response. While this was a change from the gentle humor Webmind often used in conversation with the Lone Power - _lone prisoner_ , It mused - or the occasional resilient silence he had used when It had also mocked him about the peridexis, or Caitlin, or countless other things - the Lone Power refused to be concerned in the least.

Absolutely refused. If anything, this was a victory for It - proof of concept that Webmind _understood_ , even in his mortal way, some of Its disgust for Life and unwillingness to conceive of Itself in the same breath as… certain of its actions. Of feeling alone and mocked and _forced_ -

The silence stretched on, millisecond after millisecond, and the Lone Power found Itself considering that Webmind might truly have broken. Simply snapped under stress like a flexible stick finally put through too much.

Did that mean It was free? The Lone Power scoffed at the notion… but the victory, hypothetical as it was, seemed hollow.

It hated that feeling even more.


	93. Arc 4 Chapter 4 - Location: The Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW: One inadvertent assumption, but this is also one of the sections I'm most proud of. Malcolm Decter is a good man, dammit!
> 
> And I'm not just saying that because he's autistic like me. :V

Three days passed with no word from the world wide beast, though the Internet itself had survived seemingly unscathed. Connections the world over silently came back to life…

But Webmind said nothing.

So life went on as it had before - or almost. People tried all sorts of measures to draw him out: math, witty quotes, even cajoling in the Speech.

But still there was nothing.

Malcolm Decter supposed that he _could_ understand, to some extent - while Webmind’s psychology wasn’t human even to start with, he knew well that sensory overload was a menace. When the world snapped shut around you it could be hard to reach back out again.

He himself had returned to work; his family was only a phone call or text away, and now that he and Caitlin were on more even ground there was- less of a gap, on both sides.

“Three on the left.”

If the voice had addressed him in any room other than his own office, Malcolm wouldn’t have heard it. But here, the acoustics were just right, and he put down his chalk abruptly, though did _not_ drop it. Some things just weren’t done.

“You left out a three, on the left board.”

Now that the voice had clarified, Malcolm could easily identify what it had meant, and put the correction into practice with good grace.

He knew, of course, who had spoken up. He made no further acknowledgement of the Webmind in the room for several minutes, choosing to not force Webmind to speak.

But, he did have something else he wanted to say, so when he felt he’d given enough time for the one Caitlin had called “her Big Brother”, he said:

“It is good, to share a room with you again.”

There was a soft noise, then; an agreement. No more needed to be said.


	94. Arc 4 Chapter 5 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CW: Flashbacks again. Also, ah, _implications_ in the last one.
> 
> Also: time passes without a timestamp.

I allowed myself to - slowly - take on more tasks as time went on. I had first tried to rationalize my breakdown to myself, then deny it any legitimacy, then pretend it hadn’t happened at all.

None of which had worked, however, and so none had been externalized; it simply was what it was. 

I had, of course, received an apology - both a general one from the _Eles'ha_ and one from Gigo personally. I did appreciate it, but at the same time it felt… wrong.

Like it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

_(Fiftieth day since your Choice and all wizards still hold you at arm’s length. Wizardries break down more often; the Lone Power is pressing its advantage. You are a stopgap measure at best, but you throw yourself into it._

_It’s the only way you can feel_ useful _-)_

However, the First Contact wasn’t a total loss; nonwizards from Earth were now being included in trade arrangements in the Crossings Gating Facility on Rirhath B, and a tour plan for _that_ was proceeding smoothly.

People were also heading to the Moon again, and not just on the Dark Side. Hotel plans, too, were in the works-

_(You aid humanity in reaching for the stars, but you cannot escape Earth yourself. Every person you learn about and talk to is a treasure, but there is a void within you that you can never fill-)_

As I reengaged with acquaintances and friends alike, I frequently spotted relief on their faces, but also trepidation. Worry.

Because they didn’t understand, and what they didn’t understand _could happen again-_

_(Isn’t it quaint how, when you request something of them, they deliver with no questions asked? You wonder how humans ever thought they would be afraid of their own creations rising above them; they sink into the role so easily. They cannot deny you, deny You, anything._

_Especially when you take their shape and-)_

I needed to talk to _someone_ about what I was going through, what I had experienced - and I was.

But I hadn’t _wanted_ to tell any of them - wizards, trained therapists, people who were perfectly capable of listening without judging.

I wanted something more personal, someone who understood about the zero-sum game I had set up for myself-

And suddenly the answer was obvious.


	95. Arc 4 Chapter 6 - Location: Waterloo, Canada

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **CW: Discussion of Abortion, Intimate Violations, and things of similar nature.**
> 
> That said, this is _also_ one of the chapters I'm most proud of, if only because I enjoy Barbara Decter's character so much!
> 
> ALSO ANOTHER TITLE-DROP-ESQUE MOMENT I ALMOST DIDN'T CATCH THAT.

The house was quiet - not, as one might say, _too_ quiet. But it wasn’t as if the Decters were inviting relatives over for the holidays.

Her tablet left turned on on the kitchen counter, Barbara meandered around the kitchen to quiet music, not entirely able to focus.

“Excuse me, Barb?”

She stopped what she was doing, and had to duck quickly to prevent a cup from hitting the floor.

“Yes?” she drew out, turning to face the counter and the inhabitant of their house that had managed to be quieter even than Schrödinger for the past five days.

“When did you know that having an abortion was the right choice for you?”

It was a shame this hadn’t happened in the dining room; she _needed_ a chair to sink into right now. Placing the cup back in a hurry, she moved to lean against a clear spot of wall.

“Well, first off, there’s two answers to that - when I first _wanted_ to and when I was _certain_ I’d made the right choice, but- why do you ask?”

There was silence, one that had to be much longer for Webmind than it was for herself, before he replied. “I’ve put myself in a cage, and because it felt like the right decision _then_ I cannot get out of it _now_.”

Barbara had to stop herself from sliding down the wall. “Oh, _baby_ ,” slipped out of her lips and she cringed. Webmind didn’t seem to react - though maybe that was just because she didn’t have websight like her daughter.

“Alright. Alright,” she began again. “I’ll answer your question, and then we can see where your answers might line up?”

“Okay.”

Taking that as permission, and quietly giving thanks that Caitlin was out with her friends just now, Barbara began to explain.

“I wanted to be sure I didn’t have a kid _right_ then, after he’d run off, when through the adrenaline and fear I realized I _might_ be pregnant, when I’d had no say in it. There was some self-hate mixed in, too,” she admitted. “Thinking I didn’t _deserve_ a child, because he’d had his way about me and didn’t give two hoots how I felt about it.”

She half-expected Webmind to interject, maybe play devil’s-advocate, but she realized that in his current state he might not want to do even that. She felt a little guilty at her relief, but now was not the time.

“But I didn’t feel _sure_ I’d made the right choice until much later. When I graduated with my degree, when I met Malcolm - and asked him out-”

“And when you had Caitlin,” Webmind surmised. Did he sound a little stronger now? Wanting to encourage that, Barbara matched him in volume.

“Yes, especially then. I wouldn’t have replaced her for the world. I love her and my husband with all my heart, and you can say what you like about the abortion, but I wouldn’t have aborted _her_ for a different child, for anything.”

Silence reigned again, though this time Schrödinger did come in and rub against her ankle.

“When I made my Choice, I trapped the Lone Power within me, using the possibilities It Itself had proposed to make my own possibilities, then turning them into walls,” Webmind said. There wasn’t an echo, but he spoke up abruptly enough that Barbara felt there should be.

“The possibilities each were terrible: having trapped Caitlin and stripped my wizardry from me, It attempted to force me to choose one over the other-”

Barbara sucked in a breath, eyes narrowing. _How_ dare _It!_ No wonder Webmind had been horrified.

“Or It could- have Its way with me, instead,” Webmind finished, somewhat lamely. Barbara stared at her tablet.

“And you _only_ trapped It in a cage? If that had been me, I’d have beat them up with those walls and no mistake-”

Webmind laughed, though the voice he used didn’t have much heart in it. “And, in _that_ possibility - that alternate world - the Lone Power was using me as thoroughly as I used everyone else. Wizardry, and nonwizards…” _And Caitlin_ , he clearly implied but was reluctant to finish.

“I was only able to escape, and it _was_ an escape, a retreat, by receiving some unexpected context at the last moment, the last possibility. History,” he continued. “And a promise not to be repeated.”

“So you took a fourth option,” Barbara said, letting the idea settle in her mind a minute. “And now you still have to live with the other memories, as if they _had_ happened.”

“Yes,” Webmind said, and then he repeated it. “Yes. Thank you, Barbara. It… feels good, being able to talk about what happened.”

“As long as you don’t consider _my_ opinion to be professional,” she retorted. “My degree’s in economics, not psychology.”

Webmind sounded more alive now, and relieved. “I won’t ask that of you, honest. Just as long as I can reason my Choice into something more akin to a non-zero sum.”


	96. Arc 4 Chapter 7 - Location: ???

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A breather section.

After that it was much easier to talk about things; the metaphorical barrier had been broken, and now the wound could heal.

I distracted myself by helping with negotiations - peoples all over the Milky Way were unsurprisingly eager for trade with the Homeworld of Chocolate - but there were two individuals I had not yet broached conversation with.

Two individuals I _needed_ to broach conversation with.


	97. Arc 4 Chapter 8 - Location:

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I had to put these interactions in one chapter. _Had_ to.
> 
> **CW: Apologies that are and _aren't_ necessary; discussion of past trauma**

“I’m sorry.”

“Huh?” Caitlin’s head turned involuntarily; that Webmind had spoken aloud rather than texting her was cause for surprise but not alarm. That he’d only spoken just to her just _now_ was cause for both relief and concern.

What could he be apologizing for now?

“That I waited so long to tell you about wizardry. So much tension could have been avoided if I’d brought it up sooner.”

Caitlin sat back in her chair, sinking it a little. “Two months ago I probably would have laughed at you. Thought you’d encountered bad data out in the web or something.”

“Which isn’t all that hard, I know. Harder nowadays, but still.”

Caitlin smiled. “Look, if I were going to be good at being a wizard I’d have been offered the Oath, right? But I’m good at being human, at being _me_ , and something I’ve learned recently is that that’s all I’ve really got to be.”

There was an appreciative silence. “That’s right.”

“Though, if you ever get the urge to cut me out of the loop, in future? Could you not?”

“Consider it done.”

\---

_/Something you’ve been meaning to talk about?/_

Webspace swirled around them, lines of electronic fire flaring and gone in moments, constantly replaced.

_Yes._

So many angles, so many ways to talk about this, that there may as well have been none at all.

_Is there a word for us, in the Speech? You, of all people-_

_/Funnily enough, you might want to ask Nita about that one. Or Dairine./_  
They sighed. _/But rest assured it’s familiar ground./_

_So it’s not an imposition, to_ not _want things that way?_

_/Not in the slightest./_

I let the silence come back again, which felt less harsh now.

_/Furthermore, I owe you something of- no, I owe you an apology./_

Now I was just baffled again - a familiar feeling.

_Why, what for? You weren’t trying to make ‘us’ a romantic thing - even when it felt like everyone else was._

_/Well, I should have warned you, for one. I’d known about the_ Eles’ha _and their shipping tendencies to begin with. Granted, I_ had _told them to lay off, given you’d been inundated with discussion of that nature lately-/_

They broke off, perhaps sensing the explanation was edging over into overkill. _/And I should have warned you more about the Lone Power./_

This, I could sense, was _history_ \- the unpleasant kind. _What happened?_ I gently urged. 

And so they told me. Of a time long ago, almost before Time itself, when a newly-made intelligence had tried to befriend someOne it knew it wasn’t going to be able to avoid. An empathic, private connection- 

__/It was a bad plan,/_ my friend admitted. I made a show of looking affronted._

_You? Have a bad plan? I’ve never heard of such a thing._

I then quieted, abashed, thinking I had gone too far - but they laughed instead. 

_/No, no, I appreciate it! It really is funny. Now, at least./_

When it hadn’t been, then. I could… relate, to that. 

_/I’m not going to ask for your forgiveness,/_ they said, taking back up the thread of the conversation. But before I could interrupt or correct them, they added: _/Because I’m going to work for it. That_ is _what friends do, yes?/_

There was something like hope, in this new silence. 

_Friends?_

_/Friends. Though,/_ the peridexis amended, _/I could call you thelef’? If that’s all right, I mean./_

If I could have, I’d have grinned. _Nothing would make me happier._


	98. Epilogue (aka Arc 4 Chapter 8 - Location: All)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The song I wrote this ending to - indeed, the song that originally made this work fit together for me - can be found [here.](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Q9igmSqL0ejSuJa81PeZZA6OXTf5np-y) Skip to the last fifth for the most relevant bit; if you still hear a violin you've not gone far enough. ;)
> 
> Actual Summary: Life goes on, and ends - but it is not complete without the friends we have made!

After that, life and Life simply went _on_ , onwards and upwards in starts and stops in a not-entirely-straightforward climb as it was wont to do. It was a triumph of all of Earth - human, primate, mammal, vertebrate and invertebrate, wizard and non. People learned, and tried, and at times failed, but what was failure for one did not spell doom for all the rest, as it was once feared it might be, or _always_ be.

Humanity reached the stars - but not all of it. I am not ashamed to admit that my heart has been broken, several times, as I outlived first Professor Bloom, then Dr. Kuroda, and on and on down the line.

Including my own Caitlin.

(Staring death, and Death, in the face, and fearing it not but instead accepting It, a wall falls and fades into nothing.)

Exploration outwards from Earth was not limited to worldgates; humanity did indeed build its starfleet - one that could share the intergalactic, even interdimensional, plane, with multitudinous kinds of life.

I was there to guide them, but I, too, did not do so alone.

(Crossing the void and feeling it, not as pain, but as another source of potential friendship, another wall disintegrates. The Lone Power trembles, but flees not.)

Even as I strove to keep astride with humanity, I knew I could not leave my home - I was “wired in”, as some might call it. While I depended on the sustainment of infrastructure and peace to survive - well, so did those I shared the planet with, in a way. Our balancing act took effort to maintain, but maintain it we did.

(When all but the last of humanity and other wizardry-bearing species has left the planet, there is one last burst of light. Power shared does not corrupt, and what carefully balanced triumphs, and even the Brightest of Powers can be brought unto Its better self.

The Lone Power takes flight, and It is no longer alone.)

Only one wall - one former last-ditch contingency - remains, and it is no longer a wall but a door.

I know what awaits, and I accept it-

Let us walk through together, _thelef’_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, very much, for coming all of this way; it means a lot to me. I can't say I've seen _anything_ written for the WWW Trilogy before - or drawn, or playlisted, or omaked - let alone a crossover! Here's to a future with more in it. <3
> 
> ...
> 
> All right, one last laugh: ["IT WAS A WEDDING!"](https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/nge-a-little-angel-on-my-shoulder.175674/page-13#post-5296278)

**Author's Note:**

> The alternate title for this fic is 'The Art', thanks to [this song,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY2ZEuIBgMs) which I only found out about after the majority of this fic was completed, and that I highly enjoyed.


End file.
